At the 2025 NBA trade deadline, the New Orleans Pelicans traded Brandon Ingram at pennies on the dollar to the Toronto Raptors, in what looked like one of the biggest robberies in NBA history. However, after just two playoff games, they've learned the harsh reality Pelicans fans know all too well: Ingram can't be a No. 1 option in the playoffs.
The Raptors fell down 0-2 in their series with the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night, 115-105, as Ingram struggled immensely. He ended the game with seven points on 3-for-15 shooting, after being held scoreless in the first half. Similar to his time in New Orleans, the Raptors' offense has been isolation-based and built around Ingram creating for himself. For the regular season, this is fine, but when the game gets slow, every possession matters more, and the refs swallow their whistles—this style is easier for defenses to counter.
Ingram is an All-Star-level player and a high-level scorer. Don’t get me wrong. But he's much better suited as a second or third scoring option than being a team's No. 1.
The truth about building around Brandon Ingram
For six years, the Pelicans tried to build around Brandon Ingram, but the team kept hitting a ceiling as a good regular-season team that couldn't make noise in the playoffs. Isolation-based scorers like Ingram have to be in the top percentile of scorers to be someone you can build a championship team around. Look at Kevin Durant, for example—he has a similar play style, preferring to get his buckets in the midrange and scoring at all three levels, but he shoots the ball way more efficiently than BI does.
Being an iso scorer with a career field goal percentage of 46.9 percent is going to limit a team, especially when said player isn't a high-volume three-point shooter.
The NBA is all about margins, and few margins matter more than the three-point line. When you build a team around Ingram, you'd better be prepared to surround him with shooters, because his career 3.9 three-point attempts per game isn't going to cut it, and the Raptors are learning that. All the Cavs have had to do in these first two games is send two at the ball when BI gets inside the arc, be physical with him, and force him to kick out to his teammates (who are mostly non-shooters).
Toronto needs a true No. 1 scoring option, and they've sold both themselves and their fans on the idea that Brandon Ingram is that guy. Now, Pelicans fans can only sit back and watch as another team falls for the same false reality they once believed in.
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