New Orleans Pelicans vs Brooklyn Nets

New Orleans Pelicans vs Brooklyn Nets

The entire New Orleans Pelicans roster recently gathered in California for a voluntary mini-camp and a series of workouts. Everyone was there — Zion WilliamsonDejonte Murray has just been acquired, CJ McCollum — except for two players. One was the new center Daniel Theiswho has just finished his career for Germany at the Paris Olympics and has taken some time off.

The other was Brandon Ingram.

That’s according to William Guillory of The Athletic:who noted that in recent years, Ingram was one of the organizers of the training. No official reason was given, but his absence speaks to the murky state of Ingram’s future in New Orleans as he heads into 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 met with little to no interest on the market, 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 sizeable extension, the Pelicans have little interest in also handing Ingram a four-year max extension worth a projected $207.8 million…

Meanwhile, it seems clear that the trade market has dried up and there’s not much chance Ingram will be traded before the regular season begins… Given the circumstances, the Pelicans are prepared to enter the season with this same roster and see how Williamson, Ingram, Murray, McCollum, Murphy and Herb Jones can all fit in.

All of this 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. The first is something we’ve talked about before and that Guillory mentions: It’s not just the Pelicans who don’t want to pay Ingram the max next season. Ingram may not like it, but he’s viewed the same way the Pelicans do. BullsZach LaVineas an All-Star-level scorer, but not someone who does enough other things to win. In the NBA’s new financial world of tax aprons, teams will be more cautious about who gets a max or near-max contract, and there are no playoff contenders or top-tier teams looking to pay him that much beyond this season (and the price to rent him for a season is too high).

The other reason the Ingram trade market is low is that teams that could use Ingram as a floor reliever don’t want that floor to be too high heading into two very deep drafts over the next two years. Even with the league’s flattened lottery odds, those teams don’t look like they’re very good.

Ingram may be frustrated, understandably, but he enters this season as a Pelican. Whether that changes will be one of the stories to follow this season.

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