New Orleans Pelicans: Evaluating Brandon Ingram’s early MVP chances

Analyzing what Brandon Ingram needs to do to win the MVP with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2021

Brandon Ingram needs to do a few things if he wants to take home the honors of being the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. These items are easier said than done but should be some goals that Ingram strives to attain anyway so let’s check them out.

#1 – Brandon Ingram needs to continue putting up gaudy numbers

This part is relatively self-explanatory, the NBA’s MVP award is in part a statistical award. Players who put up big numbers tend to win the award pretty easily. Just look at some of the recent winners. Ingram’s numbers early on look similar to LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s numbers when they won the award in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

#2 – Ingram needs to lead the New Orleans Pelicans to wins all season

A player can have elite numbers, but they won’t win the MVP if their team is not winning, and in this case, winning means playoffs. The last time the NBA’s MVP didn’t lead a playoff team was in 1976 when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award. It’s safe to say that this trend won’t break anytime soon.

#3 – If Ingram wants the MVP, he needs to have MVP moments

Like any award that is voted on by the media, there needs to be a narrative. If you look back on the league’s recent MVP winners, they all had some signature MVP moments in games and a narrative they were chasing that led them to the award. A major example of this would be Stephen Curry’s 2016 MVP season, that year he had the signature moments of nailing a game-winners, and his team was chasing a 73-win season. Ingram needs his own moments and story if he wants to win.

Will Brandon Ingram win the MVP? Nobody can say so early in the season, after all the award looked like it belonged to Luka Doncic early last season until Giannis had a midseason surge. Either way, watching Brandon Ingram potentially chase this award will only make this season better for New Orleans Pelicans fans.