The Drama Surrounding Brandon Ingram And The Pelicans Is Heating Up After He No Showed A Week Long Voluntary Minicamp

Cooper Neill. Getty Images.

Well, I think we can consider this the least surprising news of all time. 

Is it the best look for one of the Pelican's best players to no show a voluntary minicamp where pretty much the entire roster was there? Definitely not great. But when I say this is the least surprising news of all time, it's not hard to understand why Ingram may be a little pissed right now at the franchise. First they decided to not give him a max extension and then they spent the rest of the summer throwing Ingram in every trade rumor under the sun. Whether they were true or not doesn't really matter, it happened. So is it crazy to think Ingram would be pissed at the moment?

Uhhhhhh, ya think?

Now there are two ways to look at this in my opinion. On one hand, he's still on the team and is under contract, so don't be a baby and be a leader by showing up with everyone else. Things in the NBA usually start at the top with the best players as they set the tone for the whole season. If they show up and buy in and are committed, the rest of the roster usually follows. Safe to say that did not happen here with Ingram and in some ways it backs up why the Pelicans maybe don't want to fork over a $200M+ extension despite his on court production.

The other way you can look at it is that maybe there is a trade already in the works and Ingram knows it, so why even show up? Granted that's a bit of a stretch considering the Pels couldn't seem to give him away this summer, but the clock is ticking. The longer he's on the Pelicans the lower his trade price becomes given he's an UFA after this season. If you wait until the deadline, you're probably only going to get 60 cents on the dollar because what contending team is going to give up legit assets for a player that could walk for nothing at the end of the year? Unless he gives the impression he'd sign an extension with that team, that's a risk not many teams can take. Plus, you're going to have to fork over 200M+ which might not be the best idea either. 

As a player, Brandon Ingram is tough to figure out. The raw numbers are legit, he's going to give you around 24/5/5 on good efficiency, but he also doesn't really shoot 3s and nobody is certainly voting him onto an All NBA Defensive team any time soon. But if you're a team that needs a bucket getter with a little playmaking mixed in, Ingram can fill that role

The biggest issue is the price. In this new CBA world where teams have to be diligent about handing out massive extensions or else you're screwed for the foreseeable future, it's not surprising that the market for Ingram doesn't appear to be all that great. He's a player that can't seem to stay on the court (played over 64 games only once in his career), so paying max money to a limited player who is always hurt doesn't exactly seem like a smart move in 2024.

My guess is we get to the February trade deadline and someone bites. They'll need around $36M in money to make it work, but if there's a team that feels like they can contend for a title by adding some offense to their roster, I could see a trade finally happening. Unless the Pelicans have a way to keep Ingram at a lower price, they absolutely have to trade him at some point given the worst thing a team can do is let a high priced asset walk over the summer and lose the asset for nothing. Even if you have to take back a fraction of his worth, to simply protect the asset you have to do it.

Advertisement

With Zion trimmed down and healthy and the Pels having a bunch of young intriguing talent on their roster, there's no reason why they shouldn't find a way into the Top 6 barring health (won 49 games last year). That is of course unless Ingram poisons the well before things even get going and their season is cursed before it even starts.