It’s no secret: The New Orleans Pelicans have been “aggressively” trying to trade Brandon Ingram since last offseason. Two things have stood in the way of that getting done: Ingram’s $36 million salary that is hard to move, and the fact it’s the last year of his deal, so he is looking for a team that will sign him to a max or near max new contract. There was enough friction between New Orleans and Ingram that he did not show up for the team’s voluntary offseason workouts, although by all reports he has been professional through this young season.
The update on this saga is that there is no update. Through what has been an ugly 4-16 start to the season, the Pelicans are still looking for a trade — one where they take back less money and lower their tax bill — but finding a taker that will sign Ingram long-term is still a problem. Here is what Brian Windhorst wrote at ESPN.
Sources told ESPN the two sides can’t agree on a contract extension and trade talks since last summer have failed to align. Finding a place where New Orleans can send Ingram’s $36 million salary and get value while also reducing salary — the Pelicans are currently in the luxury tax for the first time ever and not likely to stay there — is hard enough. But finding a deal with a team Ingram will be comfortable signing a new contract with has also stalled talks, per sources.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps adds that the NBA’s new CBA and its tax aprons are adding to the challenge.
The league’s new collective bargaining agreement continues to cause a lot of friction for teams. Signing a player such as Ingram, a 6-foot-8 forward who has averaged at least 20 points per game for six consecutive seasons, will require a hefty contract next summer. All but a few franchises have limited salary cap space, and teams are reluctant to hard cap themselves with a trade early in the season. The several teams in the second apron aren’t even allowed to trade for him.
Injuries have decimated the Pelicans through the first 20 games of the season and with Zion Williamson expected to miss a chunk more time due to a hamstring strain, the Pelicans have some hard choices to face. While we may be just one-quarter of the way into the NBA season, the Pelicans are already 6.5 games out of even the last play-in spot in the West and would need to leapfrog five teams — and improve their record to .500 or better — just to get into that conversation.
At what point does management start thinking about a pivot to tanking, er… focusing on young players and looking to the NBA Draft? (Nobody in the NBA would actually tank, right?) This is a different situation than Philadephia in the East just because of the conference disparity — the 3-14 Sixers are just four games out of the postseason and don’t need to get back to .500 to make it. Philly has time to turn it around, but does New Orleans?
None of which makes trading Ingram any easier. Maybe the Pelicans will just ride with him all season as a scorer on a struggling team. Nothing is coming easy for New Orleans this season.