Latest Brandon Ingram trade rumors | New Orleans Pelicans free agency updates
there’s no way Brandon Ingram could be traded to the Sacramento Kings right right I’ll actually tell you why it makes more sense than you think plus the latest free agent updates and rumors and we say goodbye to both Naji Marshall and Jonas valent chunis it’s a Monday episode of Locked on Pelicans a start a free agency episode of Locked on Pelicans let’s [Music] go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at NOA Jake on Twitter here with youall on this Monday the start of free agency Pelicans being a little bit quiet but there’s no need to panic we’ll get into the latest news and rumors in the second part of today’s episode but I want to start with Brandon Ingram we heard reports that maybe the Sacramento Kings are looking at him on the surface doesn’t make a lot of sense right nothing New Orleans would want but when you really think about it a trade there actually can start to come come together pretty quickly we’ll explain why in today’s episode and of course thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well we just broke down in an emergency episode coming to you as soon as possible about the dejon Murray trade for the Pelicans go give that a listen if you haven’t already today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel will make every moment more as the playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting like we want them to but this summer fandu was hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com locked on to get started so let’s get into this one I saw a couple reports out there and this has been said for a while you know the Sacramento Kings per FanDuel are one of the early teams to be a favorite for trading for Brandon Ingram and then we saw reports that the Sacramento Kings are aggressively trying to get brand and Ingram it’s not something the Pelicans should entertain right they should just kind of hang up the phone pretty quickly it seems like you know if you’re not going to get deer and fox and they’re not and you don’t really necessarily need him as much with dejonte Murray here on the team a trade doesn’t make a ton of sense all of a sudden you know you’re not going to get some bonus from them but actually thinking more about this I see the logic behind why the Pelicans would actually entertain this and there’s two big reasons for it so on the surface again this doesn’t make sense you know the trade would be if it’s just a straight up two- team trade Harrison Barn Kevin herder and like two three first round picks probably three first round picks would be needed I don’t think the Sacramento Kings are going to give up Keegan Murray in this deal so Harrison Barnes Kevin herder and three future first round picks for Brandon Ingram that seems like a bad trade right but hold on let me explain you know go back to the Atlanta Hawks deal for Deonte Murray that’s a team that wants to be competitive you know in theory now around Trey young they don’t need first round picks but they just picked up you know essentially three if you count Dyson Daniels from the Pelicans and the idea is then use those picks for something else it’s hard to figure out trades in the NBA so the Pelicans are in the same boat don’t need picks from the Kings especially when you trade them a player that’s going to make him better but here’s the thing having midlevel salary is useful so look at the contracts not so much the players of Harrison Barnes and Kevin herder Harrison Barnes makes $18 million next year Kevin hder is 16.8 the Pelicans with a very topheavy roster particularly after the brand and Ingram trade and more on the salary cap in the next segment a little bit here you know don’t really have that kind of mid-tier tradable salary something in the 20s range that’s not what they have at all right now it’s basically you know high-end guys four of them on the team and then low-level salary dudes there’s nothing in the middle so you kind of need that mid-tier salary to try and make some of these trades work and it means that you’re not so much as trading for Harrison Barnes is you’re so much as trading for an $18 million contract that you will then flip later and include these first round picks involved with this deal to try and get something better essentially what this would do while being an unexciting trade and probably something we would look at and be like that’s all for Brandon Ingram is it would give the Pelicans far more flexibility than they have right now a significant amount of flexibility that they don’t really have right right now it’s a bit of a like super Galaxy brain move thinking chess not Checkers and I don’t love those sorts of things because say you can’t trade Harrison Barnes you’re stuck with him for two years say you can’t trade Kevin herder and I think herder and Barnes could be contributor would be it’s not even could be they would be contributors on this team but what if you can’t move them you’re stuck with them it’s a bit of a gamble there and this is one of those things that I don’t particularly Love sometimes you get things in deals and there’s uses for them but it doesn’t end up working out right this is I think in that area and one of the things I’m going to say here I want to make this very clear I’m not taking a shot at anyone because shmid Dua and his in the no substack is very good he loves trade exceptions and I get the the need for having them I just don’t think they get used like we would like to see them used even though the Pelicans would probably use it in this case so maybe you know in the NBA so sometimes it’s great to create a trade exception but if you don’t use it and it expires a year later that doesn’t do you a whole lot of good I think and so I’m I’m kind of a little bit more practical about trading for guys that are going to make this team better tomorrow for the start of the regular season but it’s worth noting that you know after the draft when or sorry yeah after the draft before they introduced the new players you had David Griffin talking about how your roster isn’t set in July it’s not even set on training camp right it could be sent during the regular season at the trade deadline that’s kind of hinting at more moves to come that might not happen immediately so you know that’s why we said be patient with a with a move that New Orleans would made and then you know the next day or two they made the Deonte Murray trade they then might be telegraphing to y’all and US me too that there’s going to be moves made during the regular season so there could be a brand INR trade that maybe brings back a weaker return than we would like to see but they’re going to turn that into something much later maybe in February at the trade deadline and that’s when your final roster you know takes shape and it matters at the end of the season not the start of the regular season and that’s something that’s worth keeping in mind the other way of trade I said there were two to the Sacramento Kings would make sense is a three- team deal right like you you you could expand this this could get bigger and you might even see that with the dejonte Murray trade it’s not finalized yet and so until these things are finalized you often can see them expand a little bit and you seen and we’ve talked about it here David Griffin does that can address multiple needs in one deal by expanding that trade and getting very creative within the rules of what you’re allowed to do you get a three- team trade you know we’ll talk about Wendell Carter Jr in the next segment here as we get into the rumors of the trade market in free agency for the Pelicans but you could have a deal that includes Orlando with a starting center coming back to New Orleans along with some mid-tier salary and then that makes you better now gets you your starting center and then allows you to be aggressive at the trade market at the trade deadline and see what else you can do to get your team where you want it to be so nothing needs to be set right now and it’s one of those things where say a brain Ingram trade happens I don’t know tomorrow I’m not hinting that it is here that it might not look great but that’s not going to be the end of all of this and I think that’s something that’s worth keeping in mind so yeah on the surface Sacramento know and then you think about it a little bit more and you go okay yeah I see this chess not Checkers and maybe that’s kind of the way that the Pelicans front office is thinking so coming up next it’s a quiet start to free agency kind of in general I thought but also really for the New Orleans Pelicans minus losing two guys but let’s look at where they stand with some of the free agent targets that we’ve talked about here on lock on pelicans and some of the the trade targets that I think could make sense for the Pelicans as well that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans today’s episode of lock on Pelicans is brought to you by FanDuel I love sports and I love him so much that I never want him to stop but as the NBA playoffs are now over we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sportsing like we want them to but FanDuel lets me and you keep the sports going whenever you want and all you have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime that you’re in the mood and it’s great to do it this summer fuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long there might not be the NBA but you’ve got Major League Baseball you’ve got soccer the Olympics are coming up too so head over to fanduel.com lockon and start making the most of your summer FanDuel the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball and the official sports betting partner of locked on and thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering every everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and now for your second listen today you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day long you watching something else where they’re not talking sports do you have to turn down the volume with all that yelling make the switch to lock on sports today a free 247 sports streaming Channel program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the yelling lockdown supports today brings you can’t miss analysis opinions in news streaming 24/7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day so let’s get into free agency there’s a couple of players that are off the board and you know don’t panic New Orleans is in a weird spot where brand the Brandon Ingram deal we don’t know what it’s going to be and we’re expecting a trade the Dean Murray trade is not finalized yet too all of that impacts what the pels can do in free agency and one thing that’s worth noting and I got to update my cap sheet on all of this is that the luxury tax line and that means the first and second apron and overall salary Capt came in lower by about $1.4 million or so that is more impactful than you might think 1.4 you know when you’re talking $170 million doesn’t sound like a lot but it actually is and can impact how the Pelicans are able to spend and what they can do in free agency and there’s a couple of roster spots that they still need to figure out and resolve here so I as we said in the Deonte Murray trade reaction episode don’t expect them to didn’t expect them to be active in the first day of free agency because so many things are kind of in the air and uncertain that you can’t sign someone to a big contract and then you know it limits what you could trade Brandon Ingram for because you are hard capped at the first apron which is where the Pelicans are and by the way we explained that too and why that wasn’t a thing to panic about in the bonus show and in the show before that that we talked about here this is why you should subscribe to locked on Pelicans so it’s a Qui start to free agency for New Orleans just nothing happening here and you saw some moves get immediately done and I’m not panicking that these were guys that maybe we wanted in New Orleans and now they’re no longer going to be and it’s okay you know starting with Chris Paul getting waved by the Golden State Warriors their era is ending hard here signing with the San Antonio Spurs a move that I like secretly really like you also saw Mason plumbley go off the board and then Andre Drummond immediately after that signed with the Phil Philadelphia 76ers so all of a sudden the Pelicans who are in dramatic not maybe dramatic drastic need of front Court depth but they need some centers right like you can’t roll in with Eve Mei yet and we’ll talk more about him later in the week because I’m starting to come around on that pick more than I was when it was initially made talking to people around him and people with the team a little bit more and I’ll share all of that with you later in the week here there’s still plenty of options you know you can look at someone like Thomas Bryant on a veteran minimum deal would make some sense if you just need a starter to soak up some minutes you know I think one of the things they want to probably try and do is get a starting center and then sign another Center so maybe one in a trade we’ll hit on some trade targets here in a second and you know maybe sign one in free agency Thomas Bryant on a veteran minimum deal in free agency makes an absolute ton of sense for New Orleans you just need someone to soak up you 20 minutes per game that’s kind of what you’re looking for it doesn’t need to be you know a guy that is going to make a massive impact you need someone there as things are now to do that and you can still conceivably trade Brion Ingram for starting center Jared Allen might be the name that you know is on everyone’s mind that seems attainable Miles Turner is a name that a lot of y’all have mentioned to me since the dejonte Murray trade I just don’t see him getting traded right now from the Indiana Pacers I agree that he could be very very ideal for the New Orleans Pelicans as a three-point shooting big man but I don’t know if that team wants to move him for how key he has been for them but you have someone like Thomas Bryant you know would make sense he’s been limited the past couple of years here and hasn’t kind of played the amount of games that maybe we would see but with Miami last year in 38 games six points per game you know four rebounds it’s not horrible numbers including being involved in a fight with Naji Marshall pour went out for him um on the team last year but you also have someone like Mo bomba that you could get for or a veteran minimum in free agency and this is someone who his career has not gone exactly what you would have wanted to have seen you know in Philadelphia last year 57 games you know you don’t look for the the solid numbers there because his role was very reduced but he can definitely play a little bit Five Points 4.4 points per game four rebounds this is a guy who can still try and block some shots in 13 minutes per game he averaged a block per he also shot 39% from three he’s added that three-point shot to his Arsenal it’s limited minutes but if you extrapolate that out to 36 minutes per game last season 12.3 points per game 11.6 rebounds two assists he had almost three blocks per game and took over three threes I don’t want him playing 36 minutes but you know for a veteran minimum to play some minutes for you that’s a guy that I do think maybe makes some sense you also have some trade targets that I think are out there that could be involved in that Brandon Ingram trade expand it out to three three teams right Wendell Carter Jr I think is probably the name that’s going to make the most sense and the easiest one to acquire he’s on the Orlando Magic and did pretty well for them last season I thought he gives you Mobility on the perimeter he can shoot a little bit too I wouldn’t call him an elite shooter but he’s pretty good 37.4% last season on over three attempts per game 11 rebounds or sorry 11 points seven rebounds including a bunch on the offensive glass those are pretty good numbers to me gives you enough kind of Rim protection shot blocking not great but that’s what you drafted Eve Mei for and you’re looking at doing this as a platoon you know and again this all might be moot if they end up trading Brandon Ingram and bringing in a bigname kind of splashy Center and I think that’s ultimately the goal but beyond a guy like Wendell Carter Jr you have Walker Kessler someone that I’ve seen mentioned a lot in link to the Pelicans with the Utah Jazz I’m not as high on him as other are he was good his rookie year finishing third in Rookie of the Year nine points 8.4 rebounds but didn’t take that Leap Forward last season and in a sense kind of regressed a lot there is mobility you know he’s young that’s good he has a lot of shot blocking potential I think there isn’t three-point shooting there you know he’s a borderline starter at best now you don’t need this starting center position to be anything truly Elite for New Orleans given what they could have out there at the court on the court but you know I wouldn’t give up a ton for Walker Kessler Lowry marinin by the way for the Utah Jazz does not play center and we should not think of him as such maybe more on him another day but I don’t really see him getting moved you also could get someone like Isaiah Stewart from beef stew one of my favorite nicknames here in the NBA you know with the Detroit Pistons they also have Jaylen Duren too like but Stewart’s more likely to be moved here he’s a little bit older he’s been in the league for four years 11 points 6.6 rebounds last season about a block per game he shoots the three ball not well but he shoots it 38% on almost four attempts per game last season like those aren’t horrible numbers kind of regressed a little bit from the year before but so you’ve seen some names go off the board for New Orleans in free agency but I do think there’s still plenty of options out there for him and they’re likely going to address the position through a trade so someone like Andre Drummond signing with the 76ers was like eh whatever Mason plumbley might have been my choice for it but like doesn’t truly matter here if all of those guys are off the board and then Chris Paul I don’t think was you know really going to be a realistic option for New Orleans anymore after trading for dejon Murray and that would have been a nice reunion but 11 million I think is what he signed for that seems a little bit too high and not a number that New Orleans really was going to want to Broach or anything like that so that’s kind of where it stands you know one person who’s definitely not going to be their starting center next year is yonas valent chunis he signed for less than we were expecting no maybe not I take that back this is about what I thought his his Market would be three years $30 million so 10 million per year New Orleans could have done that and then you have a starting center right that was never going to be a realistic option and I will explain why and let’s wish him well in Naji Marshall well that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans and thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well we are the number one Pelicans podcast so tell your friends you know we did an immediate as soon as I could getting off the plane doing a show on Deonte Murray kind of breaking it all down for yall the kind of biggest takeaways from that what he needs to improve right like there’s a little bit of risk here in New Or for New Orleans with that trade too as much as I think it is a good deal I wouldn’t be like yeah it’s an A++ plus it’s like an A minus in my opinion there’s still a little bit of concern good deal but a couple of questions that we still have and I think that’s important to look at and address make sure you give that show a listen here on lockon Pelican subscribe wherever you get your podcast tell friend about the show too join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well you’re second list today lock on Saints Ross Jackson look Saints season is like just around the corner training camps in like a couple of weeks here he’s going to be out there in Irvine covering training camp on a daily basis make sure you subscribe to the locked on Saints podcast make them your second listen today so Pelicans lost a couple of people in free agency and none of this was unexpected I saw a lot of people wondering if New Orleans could you know bring one or both of these guys back and I just think it was never really going to be the case and part of it is they’re a little bit limited on flexibility right now maybe they could have brought so Naji Marshall signed for three years $27 million with the Dallas Mavericks he was probably one of the better Wings available in unrestricted free agency that’s a pretty good move for them um they’re going to make a serious run at Klay Thompson it sounds like though my bet would be he ends up joining the Lakers but the Dallas Mavericks signing him you know what i’ kind of said was he’s going to take the money and he should this is someone who in his career just had not made a lot of money being a two-way you know an undrafted guy who then was on a two-way then got an actual NBA deal but man he was dramatically underpaid for his career in the NBA he has made so far $3,420 th000 like for three years in the league that is not a lot of money now New Orleans did a very good job kind of discovering him buil bringing him along on a two-way and then earning him some money oh it’s 3.4 plus plus 2 million this year so he’s made like five under 5 half million in in four years that’s what it is which look I I’ll Take 5 million in under four years but still that’s not good money by NBA standards he was going to take kind of the biggest bag I think and if he could get a guaranteed $27 million a good for that dude I liked have Nai on the team he was a lot of fun but one of the things I think we can look at was he’s a pretty unskilled player I was describing him to our locked on Mavericks host as if you’re looking at like the D and D chart of alignments he’s like chaotic good in like the best way possible The Good the chaotic part being kind of unskilled he will hustle he will do all the right things he will fight for you back up your guys but an unskilled player at times which isn’t like a knock on him it was just you know I think New Orleans could use a little bit more like Talent structure though I do think some of the chaos he brought on the court was an important thing but he was going to get go and just take the biggest bag as he should have you know 9 million in Theory new or could bring him back but they wouldn’t have been able to bring him back for a while till the stuff with Brandon Ingram is settled till the trade with dejonte Murray is settled so while it sucks to lose him I don’t think it’s ultimately the end of the world this opens up minutes for Jordan Hawkins potentially Matt Ryan though I don’t think so more likely Hawkins is going to really be you know heavily entrenched in the rotation next season after this move so good for him for getting that money you know I think New Orleans needs more shooting a little bit more something else we’re going to miss him that type of hustle that type of energy coming in off the bench and just giving New Orleans a spike of adrenaline I think is something that is very underrated and very needed for a pretty lethargic group at times but given that there this roster is going through some shakeups right now maybe that concern will be alleviated you know the other loss is Jonas valunas leaving a sign with the Washington Wizards for three years $30 million I like that after drafting Alex SAR bringing valent junis to maybe Mentor him a little bit and kind of give him you know another big body to kind of soak up some of what SAR might struggle with at the you know the early part of his NBA career for Jonas valent junis like we just want to say thank you like I mean it you know I’ve have long said he’s not a bad player he just didn’t fit Willie Green and what the Pelicans wanted to do you know I the way I have described it is it’s not you it’s me yonas it’s not you it’s the Pelicans yonas like he’s a solid player not a guy you want to build a team team around certainly but a solid player who’s just going to be a good soldier go out and play and never complain this dude played 82 games last year 79 the year before and 74 before that basically played as many games as he could possibly play here in New Orleans and I think that’s an important thing and something that we’ve really got to give him a whole lot of credit for about as reliable as it comes now you know wasn’t going to be happy here you know people are going to see $10 million they could have brought him back he could be the starting center he wasn’t going to come back like that dude put his house on the market I think like before the end of the regular season and had like movers out there like the day after the season ended for the New Orleans Pelicans even if they offered him more money I don’t think he was going to come back because I don’t think he liked his role here you run the risk of this sometimes you know and if New Orleans wanted to bring him back he he was going to say no like he was just done here in this city just because of how he was used players want to know that they’re going to play they want to have a role they want that clearly defined I think that’s important to most of these guys and yonas did not have that you know next season here they just didn’t use him well and there was no point in committing $10 million to a player or more right that was going to that was going to not be used they’ve got to be very smart about the remaining funds that they have capped at the first apron and if you don’t know what that is go listen to the last two days of locked on Pelicans we cover it here and so it just made sense that he was going to go but like for both him and Nai like nothing nothing but like thank y’all like they did a very good job those are two pretty beloved players I think here in New Orleans for the way they played what they did in the energy and professionalism that you know they brought to this team and I think that was something that was lacking from I mean it’s obvious it was lacking from a number of the players on this roster so losing them you know it’s not the end of the world you wasn’t going to play so if you lose him is it that big of a deal no kind of same thing for Naji right like I think they’ll be okay without him here but those are two guys that like did right by the Pelicans go and get your money go and get your long-term contract if you’re yonas if you’re na get that bag because you deserve it we’re going to miss them but given the way the Pelican salary is structured right now kind of waiting to figure out a Brandon Ingram deal a you know waiting to solidify the dejonte Murray deal I don’t think they could have like signed those guys today and then had it not impact other things in the future in the priorities these other moves not either of those two guys maybe you agree maybe you disagree let me know in the comments Down Below on YouTube so that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans I appreciate yall so much for listening as always I’m your host Jake Madison no Jake on Twitter well more tomorrow maybe on Eve Mei maybe on some other news we’re going to be breaking it down all week long so please subscribe to the lockdown Pelicans podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every every day
The dust is starting to settle around the Dejounte Murray trade and new rumors are picking up about a Brandon Ingram trade. Jake Madison tries to make sense of the latest rumors between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings and while an Ingram trade doesn’t make that much sense on the surface, if you look further you can see why a deal would get done. Plus, is the center market drying up for the Pels in free agency? And Jonas Valanciunas and Naji Marshall are headed to new teams.
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16 Comments
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Why couldn’t we have offered Naji Marshal 3 years $27 Million?
BI just seems lazy af
Pelicans fan from the Philippines! 🇵🇭
I am absolutely disgusted by this Sacremento trade nonsense. GROSS.
Every dayer here😄
All 5 likes are coming from Sacramento. Gross. No one, NO ONE in their right mind thinks it's a good idea. We could have gotten Miles Turner. C'mon Jake, stop with the positive spin; this is completely pathetic. It's ok to say that. You don't have to tow the company line so homie in Utah doesn't can you.
A dangling hair bang!
🏀🇬🇧
Keep it up Jake. Best in the business!
where will BI go, any update?
BI for Sabonis please 🥺
I like the idea of Thomas Bryant! He’s a solid rim protector and can score!
Every dayer!! 🇵🇭🇵🇭
Send it !