The entire New Orleans Pelicans roster recently gathered in California for voluntary minicamp and a series of workouts. Everyone was there – Zion Williamson, newly acquired Dejonte Murray, CJ McCollum – except for two players. One was new center Daniel Theis, who had just finished playing for Germany in the Paris Olympics and was taking some time off.
The other was Brandon Ingram.
That’s according to William Guillory at The Athleticwho noted in past years Ingram was one of the organizers of the training. No official reason was given, but his absence speaks to the murky situation of Ingram’s future in New Orleans as he enters the final year of his contract. The Pelicans don’t want to pay Ingram the max contract extension he’s seeking, but efforts to trade him — ideally for a center — have found little or no interest in the marketplace, as Guillory explains.
But with Williamson, Murray, and McCollum already on lucrative contracts for at least the next two seasons and 24-year-old wing Trey Murphy now eligible to sign a big extension of his own, the Pelicans have little interest in also giving Ingram a fourth. -year cap extension worth a projected $207.8 million…
Meanwhile, it seems clear that the trade market has dried up and there isn’t much of a chance that Ingram will be dealt before the start of the regular season… Under the circumstances, the Pelicans are ready to enter the season with this exact roster and see. like Williamson, Ingram, Murray, McCollum, Murphy and Herb Jones can all get together.
All of which makes the Pelicans an interesting team to watch this season – the talent is there, but how do all the pieces come together?
The Ingram trade market is quiet for two reasons. One is something we’ve written about before and that Guillory mentions: it’s not just the Pelicans who don’t want to pay Ingram max money next season. Ingram may not like it, but he’s viewed much the same as the Bulls’ Zach LaVine, as an All-Star level scorer but not someone who does enough else to win. In the new financial world of tax aprons in the NBA, teams will be more careful about who gets a max or near-max contract, and there is no contending or high-end playoff team looking to pay him that much after this season (and the price to rent him for season is too high).
The other reason Ingram’s trade market is low is the lottery teams who could use Ingram as a floor lifter don’t want that floor to lift too much into a couple of very deep draft picks over the next couple of years. Even with the league’s flattened lottery odds, these teams aren’t looking to be too good.
Ingram may be understandably frustrated, but he’s going into this season a Pelican. Whether that changes will be one of the stories to watch this season.
