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As the season has become worse and worse for the New Orleans Pelicans, many have wondered if they’ll dismantle a once-promising roster. And after not being able to figure out a future with Brandon Ingram in NOLA, the Pels have found a new home for him.
The Pelicans are trading Ingram to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Bruce Brown Jr, Kelly Olynyk, a first-round pick and a second-round pick.
Brandon Ingram is headed to Toronto in a deal that will bring the Pelicans Bruce Brown Jr., Kelly Olynyk and multiple draft picks, source confirmed.
Pels make a big deal with their former All-Star.
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) February 6, 2025
The Raptors add Ingram to a wing group of Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji. They’ll have to figure out a future contract with the unrestricted free agent to be, but for now, we’ll see if this is enough to catapult the Raptors into the Play-In Tournament race in the Eastern Conference.
You know the deal. We need to grade this trade, so let’s bust out the red pen.
Raptors receive Brandon Ingram
There was a time when the running joke around the Raptors roster and team president Masai Ujiri’s vision was that the team would eventually be made up of nothing but 6-foot-8 versatile forwards in a positionless NBA. Well, add another 6-8 forward to the roster. Ingram is a one-time All-Star with tremendous scoring ability… when he’s healthy. The problem is the nine-year veteran hasn’t approached 70 or more games in a season since his rookie campaign (79 games in 2016-17). Ingram has only played 18 games this season and hasn’t suited up in a game since Dec. 7. He’s been out with an ankle injury and not cleared for contact drills as of two weeks ago.
Ingram looked pretty good to start the season. In those 18 games, he averaged 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, while making 46.5 percent of his shots, 37.4 percent of his 3-pointers and 85.5 percent of his free throws. That’s great all-around production from Ingram. It’s also very in-line with Ingram’s production during his time in New Orleans, including the 2019-20 season when he won Most Improved Player and was named an All-Star.
If Ingram is healthy for the Raptors, they can pair him with Barnes and Barrett pretty easily. They’re all pretty long and rangy on the perimeter and can attack the basket. Ingram can run some of the offense through his hands or play off Barnes or Barrett by stretching the floor. The Raptors are 5 1/2 games behind the Chicago Bulls for the 10th seed in the East, with the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets in between them. That’s a big hurdle to clear but not an impossible one. They can run out a big lineup with Dick, Barrett, Barnes, Ingram and Jakob Poeltl, with Barrett and Dick as the two shortest players on the floor at 6-6. That’s the type of basketball Ujiri has been looking to put together often in his time with Toronto.
Ingram will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so the Raptors have to figure out a future deal with him. They already have big money committed to Barnes and Immanuel Quickley. They have medium money (by today’s standards) committed to Barrett. I would assume the Raptors wouldn’t send out valuable role players and a first-rounder without feeling confident in re-signing Ingram this coming offseason. They’ll need him to be healthy, though.
Grade: B+
Pelicans receive Bruce Brown Jr, Kelly Olynyk, first-round pick and second-round pick
Was this the best solution for the Pelicans? I actually think this is a pretty good haul considering what it was looking like on the Ingram trade market.
The Atlanta Hawks were rumored to be in the mix for Ingram as well, so maybe that helped create a more competitive negotiating angle for the Pelicans. Brown is a nice role player who will be a free agent this summer. Olynyk is a good backup big man signed next season for $13 million. And the first-round pick will reportedly be the 2026 pick the Raptors have from the Indiana Pacers.
That’s a good haul when you consider there was no market for Ingram for most of the last year. The Pelicans couldn’t find a team looking to accept his potential free agency and what a contract extension might have to look like. New Orleans is having a nightmare season, and the Pelicans just lost Dejounte Murray with an Achilles tendon rupture. They were already looking imbalanced as a roster if healthy when they acquired Murray to join Ingram, CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and Zion Williamson last summer. To remove one of those elements should help things a lot — when healthy.
The problem is we don’t expect them to be healthy for a long time. The Pelicans have had to essentially punt on this season by default because they’re at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with the Utah Jazz, and they’re hoping this will land them some good fortune when it comes to the draft. It didn’t seem like they wanted to keep Ingram long term for various reasons, at least not at his asking price. They’ve turned that into some flexibility and draft capital. That’s a solid win in a season full of losses.
Grade: B
(Photo of Brandon Ingram: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today Sports)
