The New Orleans Pelicans are still expected to try to find a deal for Brandon Ingram before the 2024-25 NBA season's trade deadline. In fact, it's anticipated that they'll make practically their entire roster available for sale aside from a few designated young prospects they want to keep around as future building blocks.
The market for Ingram isn't shaping up to be what they expected. However, they had to have known that it'd be somewhat difficult to find a suitor for a one-dimensional scoring wing that's looking for a four-year, near-max, $200 million contract extension at the end of the year. The lack of interest around him might end up causing the Pelicans to have to retain him on a short-term deal to try to trade him another season, as one of his most suggested possible destinations just dropped out of the race.
Not all hope is lost, though, and New Orleans seems to still believe that he'll generate some offers before the deadline. At least one title contender is expected to place some calls for him this season. According to SNY's Ian Begley, the Denver Nuggets have Brandon Ingram on their radar and any potential trade for him would almost have to include Michael Porter Jr. heading to the Pelicans. If this is on the table, New Orleans needs to jump on the opportunity.
Trading Brandon Ingram for Michael Porter Jr. should be a no-brainer
Not that long ago, the idea of trading Brandon Ingram for Michael Porter Jr. straight up would have resulted in a call to arms from the Pelicans' faithful. MPJ in his early career looked like one of the worst contracts in the league after he signed his five-year, $180 million contract, due to his injury history and the relative lack of depth to his game.
He was known as a defensive turnstile, a blackhole on offense that couldn't and wouldn't pass, and a catch-and-shoot specialist. Brandon Ingram has plenty of holes in his game too, but it'd be difficult to find anyone who believed that he wasn't a better player than MPJ a few years ago.
To this day, BI should have the edge over Porter Jr. to most fans and analysts. But, if the Pelicans did have the chance to make that trade this season, they absolutely should.
For one, Ingram's trade stock has dipped dramatically over the past few years. At this point, he's a known commodity. While he's shown incremental growth as a defender, playmaker, and 3-point shooter, he should be near his ceiling now as a player, if not there already. At 27 years old, he should be at the beginning of his prime as what he is now: a ball-dominant score-first wing who can be a decent secondary playmaker but doesn't offer much outside of on-ball scoring.
While BI has shown that he wasn't able to grow his game much outside of marginal improvements, MPJ has done the opposite in the last few years. He's no longer a defensive sieve, although that reputation is hard to shake. He might not be a great one-on-one stopper, but he's a big body with length who knows how to use his size to clog up driving lanes and protect the rim from the weakside positionally.
He's made a leap as a playmaker this season, currently averaging a career-best 2.8 assists per game while operating as a play-finisher working off of ball-handlers like Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. He's also gotten better at generating his own offense, getting 16.7 percent of his buckets unassisted this season, the best mark he's had in his last three campaigns.
This year, he's averaging 18.5 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the field and 39 percent from deep on over eight triples per game. If the Pelicans still had any desire to build around Zion Williamson, adding a jumbo shooter who can get his shot off at any time like MPJ would do wonders for Big Z's game, especially in place of Ingram. Even if they don't plan on keeping Zion, swapping BI for Porter Jr. gives them a young-ish player who's shown that he might be able to do more with increased opportunities. At this point, it might be the best they can get for Ingram.