The New Orleans Pelicans are approaching a canon event in their franchise history. We're now just over a week away from the 2024-25 NBA season's trade deadline. This year's deadline is especially important for the Pelicans, as they're potentially looking at a complete franchise reset, and who they wind up trading or not trading could have imperative potential ramifications down the line.
The Pelicans came into this season with aspirations of making the playoffs again and making a deep run, potentially as dark-horse title contenders after adding All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray. Fast forward 13 weeks later and New Orleans is 12-34 with the current third-best odds in the NBA Draft lottery. If things hold, they'll have a 52 percent chance at a top-four pick and 14 percent odds at landing the number one selection in a class featuring blue-chip prospects like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, and V.J. Edgecomb.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Pelicans have stumbled backward into a handful of wins after getting some of their core players back from the injured reserves this month. To date, they've gone 7-6 in January, losing valuable ground to other bottom-dweller teams like the Toronto Raptors and the Utah Jazz. To ensure that they can maximize their chances at landing a franchise-changing rookie this summer, New Orleans will want to shed some of their highest-performing veterans before the trade deadline.
Players like CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram will only make it more difficult for the Pelicans to lose as many games as possible and wind up with top draft odds. While New Orleans came into the year expecting to trade BI and his expiring contract, the lack of interest surrounding Ingram might make it unfeasible for them to find a deal they like for him this season. Rather than force a deal, it could behoove the Pelicans to play out the year and either draw up a sign-and-trade for him this offseason or even re-sign him to a short-term deal in order to find a better trade in a later season. The risk of losing Brandon Ingram for nothing in free agency has mostly been mitigated, but there is one team out there that could wreck the Pelicans' plans if they don't end up trading him before the deadline.
The Charlotte Hornets could spoil the Pelicans' plans for Brandon Ingram this summer
As Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans couldn't agree on an extension this past offseason and haven't done so to this day, he'll become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season unless New Orleans either trades him before the deadline or ink him to an extension before June 30, when the league year officially ends. That always presented a risk for the organization, as Ingram could simply choose to sign with another team, leaving the Pelicans high and dry.
Thankfully, the financial situation around the league has made it less daunting for New Orleans if they choose not to trade him this year. There are hardly any teams expected to have cap space this summer and the few that do shouldn't have enough to draw him away from New Orleans, as the Pelicans still retain his Bird rights and have the option to offer him the most money.
The one team that figures to have enough cap space to offer him a max deal this offseason is the Brooklyn Nets, but they're just in the fledgling stages of their rebuild and shouldn't have any interest in adding a 27-year-old borderline All-Star just entering his prime.
There is one team that makes sense as a landing spot for him and should have a decent amount of cap space this summer, enough to potentially lure Ingram out of the Big Easy and make the Pelicans pay for not extending him or trading him before the deadline: the Charlotte Hornets.
Not only should the Hornets have over $30 million in space this summer, but they're also his hometown team, as Ingram grew up in Kinston, North Carolina, just four hours away from Charlotte. Unlike the Nets, they're in the late stages of their rebuild and have already obtained a handful of promising prospects, including two rising stars in LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. Adding Ingram as a third star to that duo alongside young support pieces like Mark Williams, Josh Green, Moussa Diabate, Tre Mann, Tidjane Salaun, and their first-round draft pick this summer should give the Hornets a core group that could compete for the playoffs next season with plenty of room to grow moving forward.
Charlotte won't be able to offer him a max deal, but they could throw all of their cap space at him for a short-term deal along with a promise of an extension or another contract soon after. The Pelicans might not be super worried about Ingram leaving in free agency this summer, but pretending like there's no risk would be malpractice from New Orleans.