It's widely known now that the New Orleans Pelicans and star wing Brandon Ingram aren't seeing eye-to-eye on a potential contract extension. The two sides failed to get a deal done over the offseason and neither party was optimistic about reaching an agreement during the season.
If Ingram doesn't re-sign with the Pels before June 30, the end of the current league year, he'll become an unrestricted free agent this summer. That is, of course, if he doesn't get traded first. February 6 is the real deadline that New Orleans is working against, as they'll have until then to decide whether they want to trade him.
There is a chance that Ingram will wind up signing an extension with the Pelicans, but not necessarily to secure his long-term future with the team. Instead, he could ink a deal with the sole intention of getting traded later on. This option would only come into play if he couldn't find a better contract on the open market though, unless he just really wanted to do New Orleans a solid.
It's been reported that Ingram was seeking a four-year contract in the neighborhood of $50 million per season. The Pelicans, on the other hand, were looking to extend him on a deal close to his current salary of $36 million. Ingram has since fired his old representation and replaced them with Klutch Sports in hopes of securing his desired contract. Recent reports have come out stating that his old agency, Excel Sports, may have cost him the contract he originally wanted and he might wind up losing out on millions of dollars due to their mistakes.
Brandon Ingram turned down multiple contract offers from the Pelicans
ESPN's Shams Charania recently gave us an in-depth look into Ingram's negotiations with New Orleans. He stated that this summer, Ingram and his camp turned down an offer that would have paid him $40 million a year, as they were hell-bent on getting as close to a max deal as possible. That's a difference of nearly $40 million total, so it's understandable why the two sides weren't able to agree.
That's not the only proposal that Ingram and his agency turned down though. According to Charania, the Pelicans did offer BI $50 million per year, only that bid came in 2023 and would have been a three-year extension instead. Clearly, Ingram and his corner believed that he was worth the full four-year deal for that average annual value. Unfortunately, over the course of the 2023-24 NBA season, the Pelicans realized that they didn't want to pay him $50 million yearly at all.
Now, he might not even have the $40 million salary on the table. The Pelicans franchise is notorious for avoiding the luxury tax. Following the acquisition of Dejounte Murray and Trey Murphy III's four-year, $112 million deal, New Orleans can't afford to pay Ingram $37 million, lest they ante up the tax for the first time in the organization's history.
Ingram and Klutch Sports will likely have to find that offer elsewhere, hopefully from a team willing to acquire his bird rights this season via trade so the Pelicans can get something in return. Otherwise, he might have to sign a short-term deal with New Orleans worth way less than he originally wanted and thought he would get.