New Orleans Pelicans In WIN NOW Mode??? | Why Brandon Ingram Trade Is Imminent!!! | NBA Free Agency

New Orleans Pelicans In WIN NOW Mode??? | Why Brandon Ingram Trade Is Imminent!!! | NBA Free Agency

David Griffin uh in his postseason media availability said that the Pelicans were going to be aggressive this off season and Friday evening the Pelicans delivered on that promise of being aggressive and they might not be done of course trading with the Atlanta Hawks to land uh Jon Murray bringing him in and there’s still some holes on the roster as well so Jake Madison host locked on pel on Twitter at Nola Jake joins the show Jake we appreciate it as always how are you I’m doing well thanks for having me on to talk some hoops absolutely hey man exciting times pels kind of blew up the news cycle a little bit uh the last three the three or so days let’s start with the jeon Murray trade uh how did it come about and initial reaction yeah I mean this is something it seems like they’ve been working on for a while they inquired with the Atlanta Hawks back at February’s trade deadline to see if they could maybe Pride djon Murray away from them then you know no deal was able to get done but the pel quickly as soon as the season pretty much ended and the offseason began restarted those talks and ultimately you looked at Atlanta as a team that needed just break up their two back court players and dejonte Murray and Trey young and well I think Trey Young shooting would have been really great here in New Orleans I think they viewed Murray who’s much bigger he’s six foot five versus Trey young being a smaller guard you know someone who’s been an elite Defender before that’s kind of really where the pugin identity is I think they viewed him as the guy they want to be their foror General they’ve been lacking a point guard David Griffin said at that end of season media availability they needed some more basketball iceu out here on this team I think they view Murray as kind of a by low candidate I don’t really think they gave up too much to get a player of his caliber of form the allar so they’d bring him in to pair alongside CJ McCullen in the back court to be that table setter for Zion Williamson and when you look at this past season for New Orleans they struggled in fourth quarters they were 0 and 24 I think is a SC when they were trailing going into the four quarter when it comes to winning games and that’s certainly not going to make you an elite team I think they view Deonte Murray as someone who can create buckets can go out and score and set other guys up you know in clutch situations something that New Orleans struggled with uh this past season so I think they feel really good about this move and frankly I was a little bit shocked that Brandon Ingram wasn’t included in this deal and they managed to to get this done without having him traded to Atlanta we’re gonna get to Brandon Ingram uh couple more on on Murray you kind of ran through a little bit of it there he seems like a pretty complete player I mean he averaged just uh below 10 assists in his time with the Spurs his three-point shooting took a big jump in Atlanta everyone was you know uh tweeting out his his steel statistics and comparing them with with herb Jones is there one part of his game that you see that really stands out to you more than any other I I wouldn’t say it’s one thing like he’s a pretty well-rounded player you know I think you can kind of look at at the different aspects of his game and see how they’re really going to help this team you know what much has been made about brand Ingram and his his reluctance when it comes to three-point shooting and Murray’s the opposite he’s trended upwards in terms of three-point attempts every single season so while he’s not an elite shooter he’s willing to take three-pointers and that’s something that the Pelicans simply need I think they like the idea of his defense in the back court this is a defensive focused team they’ve been ranked six the past two seasons and they make their money by forcing Steals and getting out in transition and running Murray has led the league in steals for the past three season so you pair him with herb Jones and that keeps that Pelican’s identity intact and maybe makes up for keeping a guy like CJ McCullen who’s not an elite Defender and who is a little bit undersized in the back court you know with that side though he’s also a good rebounder and that’s something the Pelicans struggled with these past couple of years is giving up offensive boards to opponents struggled with defensive rebounding you’re going to get a guy like Deonte Mur coming in and immediately helping with something like that so I think they just kind of view everything with him as the type of guy that really fits this team and is exactly what they were looking for how much does this move Elevate New Orleans back court in terms of where you would position it in the NBA now you know I think I’m Gonna Keep it in the western conference with okay you know I think one of the reasons the pans made a move like this and I’m sure you’re about to ask me next or you know a question or two about Brandon Ingram and what’s next for this team you know they’re kind of going for it right this is a move that definitely elevates them whether or not they trade Brian Ingram and and a trade for Ingram almost feels like a certainty now after this sort of thing when you look at the Western Conference it’s kind of wide open the Clippers got worse the Warriors have gotten worse a couple of other teams have kind of taken a step back here so with everything being so uncertain you’re seeing New Orleans kind of push their chips in and go for it so I don’t know where it necessarily Stacks their back court in terms of the NBA or the Western conference but I think you can safely say today that when you’re looking at teams in the West New Orleans has gotten better and that’s not something you can say for a lot of other Elite teams right now all right let’s talk Brandon Ingram because I was going to go there next and you said the trade feels kind of most likely now why part of it is they’re a topheavy in terms of salary you’re now having basically three guys that are making or sorry four guys that are making 30 or more million dollars and that just doesn’t work under the current collective bargaining agreement in the NBA I also definitely think it’s it’s one of those things where it’s like to too many cooks right too many chefs here of you have four guys that kind of need the ball in their hands a little bit so it feels like one of them is going to be the odd man out it’s not going to be Zion Lon it’s not going to be Murray who they just traded for and that kind of leaves you C.J McCullum and Brandon Ingram here and this move was definitely made with maximizing C.J McCullum in mind I think last year they saw he was far better off ball than kind of being their point guard the floor general for them you know this kind of covers up for his defensive issues and then that kind of then means that Bron Ingram is likely gonna be the guy who’s going to be gone and he probably has more value around the league than CJ McCullum does so if you’re trying to maximize your return on players in a trade Ingram’s the guy to go and when you look at this team there’s still a couple of big holes point guard was one they needed to address that theyve stated they wanted to address but they still need a starting center yes they drafted Eve Mei in the first round but he’s nowhere near ready to be playing 30 plus minutes per game at the NBA they need to go out and get a starting center and what this move does I think the Murray trade which is what’s so exciting about this is it allows them to just be think bigger than we were thinking when it comes to the starting center position you know on my show lock on pgin I talked about maybe you can get Andre Drummond for dirt Chief well now you could potentially we don’t know if this will happen you could trade Bri Ingram for a guy like Jared Allen Miles Turner guys that are All-Star level players that would dramatically increase the level of talent here in New Orleans at a position of me so now that you’ve gotten your point guard without having to include brain and Ingram in a deal the possibilities I don’t want to say are endless here but they’re certainly greater than they were before this trade and I think that’s what makes this so exciting you were looking at trading Ingram for a point guard or a center and you were still going to have to fill that position the other one you know in a cheapish way this now doesn’t mean that at all they’re they’re capable of kind of swinging what ever deal they want and given that Ingram’s C got one more year left on his contract the pal don’t want to pay him a max deal I think that’s why you look at him being traded with Ingram would you foresee it being more a a player swap or would the Pelicans want to recoup some of the picks they did lose in the in the Murray trade you know I think I think it could be either and while I think people fans might Panic a little bit if you trade Ingram for pix you know that doesn’t make you better today the Pelicans have been clearly playing the long game here and so we’ve seen that and I talked about this on my show today they’ve been linked to a team like the Sacramento Kings you’re not gonna get dearon Fox their All-Star point guard you’re not gonna get de mon sabonis their All-Star big man in that in that trade I don’t even know if you get their like best young player in Keegan Murray you’re looking at a deal that would be Harrison Barnes Kevin herder and say two first round picks for Brandon Ingram and when you think about that the talent there coming back to New or orans isn’t better than ingr even if it’s two players that would be youthful and in the rotation for New Orleans but that might mean you’re able to go and get a center you know one of the things I mentioned at the beginning of this here with you is the pelins are topheavy in terms of salary you sometimes just need like mid- tier salary because in the NBA if you’re making a trade you need to basically send out as much money as you’re bringing back in terms of salaries it could be tough to try and get a quality player when you have guys making $30 million or more and then guys making like $7 million or less so bringing back two players one that makes say 18 million the other one making 16 million all of a sudden now you can kind of create a package that works in a a bigger variety of trade options than you would have had with the roster currently so it could be an indirect way towards getting to the end goal here so while you trade brand Ingram for you know role players and picks you can then move all of those things for your starting center and maybe that’s more appealing one of the things to keep in mind about Brandon Ingram is you’re not just trading for Brandon Ingram if you’re an opposing team you’re trading for Brandon Ingram and the extension that you’re going to give him you’re not going to just trade for him and let him walk after one year and if you want to be certain that he’s going to stay with you well then you need to give him Max money and I think that’s something that potentially scares a lot of teams off and is maybe going to drive down his price maybe that’s why you see the Cleveland Cavaliers not really interested in trading for a guy like him because they’re going to have to commit $28 million to him over four years years and if New Orleans doesn’t want to do that why should they SO trading Brandon Ingram for kind of like a peace meal I think and picks and then repackaging all of that later down the line could get you that starting center or another player that you wouldn’t be able to get in a direct brain and Ingram trade with the that’s a great breakdown Jake actually thank you that that was awesome um with with the salary you’ve mentioned it a couple times and kind of where they are with that and then trading and you can recoup some of it and whatnot how does that impact a potential extension for Trey Murphy I I think he’s GNA get it no matter what the extensions come out in the next couple of days we’ll see I I don’t think there’s really any concern here this is someone that I think New Orleans wants to be in the starting lineup next year we’ve seen him grow he’s an elite shooter in the league you know he grew an inch or so in the past year too so he’s even taller than when he was when he entered the league that sort of thing I think shows you that this player is going to get paid and with three-point shooting and it’s not just the three-point percentage it’s on the volume too this isn’t bad that if he was in the starting lineup might take 10 threes or more per game and it’s also the variety of shots too he takes some of those really deep ones you know go back to whatever year was when Steph Curry was at Davidson in college in the in the tournament one of the things that stood out to me so much about that run that they had that first year was anytime he crossed half court they threw a defender on him he could be just a over the half court line and there was a Defender glued to him because they were scared of him shooting think about that on this Pelicans team when Trey Murphy takes threes from 30 to 35 feet away and you know he’s going to do it and he can make those you have to defend it that creates so much space for someone like Zion leamon and that’s something we’ve been screaming that we need to see this team do more of so when it comes down to it look I think you’re gonna see Tre get a four or fiveyear deal if it’s five years it’s going to maybe be around $140 million total he certainly going to get a bag that’ll mean that in the future they need to look at trading CJ McCullum in a year maybe but that’s borrowing a problem from the future but Trey certainly going to get paid and is gonna have a very significant role on this team next year they promised aggressiveness they have uh delivered and they might not be done Jake Madison locked on pels on Twitter at Nola Jake God kind enough to give us some time here on on that further review to talk about a very busy weekend for the New Orleans Pelicans de jonte Murray coming over from the Atlanta Hawks and it looks like Brandon Ingram could be uh more than on the trading block Jake we appreciate the time as always uh thank you thanks for having me on hey thanks so much for watching please leave your comments I love to interact and be sure to hit the red subscribe button [Music] below with you [Music] [Applause] with you after with

Jake Madison of the Locked On Pelicans Podcast joins AFR to recap the latest offseason moves for the New Orleans Pelicans. We react to the trade of former Hawks All-Star guard Dejounte Murray. What’s the latest on a potential Brandon Ingram trade? We also discuss what other moves could be coming and if rookie first round pick Yves Missi is the answer at center.

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