The rumors around a Brandon Ingram trade have been getting louder as the Pelicans have not shown fierce determination to retain the star. The 26-year-old is supposedly slated to leave New Orleans and is awaiting a great deal to come his way. In the meantime, there’s something else that the Pelicans need to figure out.
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The franchise is currently in dire need of a center on their roster. On a recent episode of Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective, the ESPN analyst talked about the issue and proposed a road map for the Pelicans if they want to bring in a good center.
Windhorst said that the Portland Trail Blazers have three ‘starting-level’ centers on the team, Deandre Ayton, Donovan Clingan, and Robert Williams III. All three of them, per Windhorst, are worthy of being starters for a franchise like NOLA.
Windy believes that the Pels can benefit with the current surplus in Portland. He said, “It seems like they have one extra center and New Orleans doesn’t have any center. It seems to me like those two teams can do business.”
The idea here is to cash in on the upcoming Brandon Ingram trade to strengthen the pieces around their centerpiece, Zion Williamson. Last week, the Pelicans lost their starting center when Jonas Valanciunas took a three-year, $30 million deal from the Wizards.
.@WindhorstESPN: the Trailblazers have 3 starting level centers.. NOLA doesn't have any. Seems like those two could do business@_Andrew_Lopez: Robert Williams is from Louisiana… Willie Green spent time in PHX and was around Ayton… Portland does on paper make a lot of sense pic.twitter.com/56VuOXz2du
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) July 6, 2024
Earlier, players like Jarrett Allen and Walker Kessler were on the Pelicans’ radar. However, the rumors have been in the air for a while and yet, there hasn’t been any course of action on it. So, in the scenario laid out by Windhorst, the best possible option that the Pelicans have is to use the cap space that will be created by Ingram’s trade to get the extra center available in Portland.
As of now, the Sacramento Kings are being considered the frontrunners to sign Ingram. The Kings already have De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis as star players. On top of that, their roster is further strengthened by Keegan Murray and Malik Monk. Adding Ingram to that equation seems like a no brainer for them as he might be able to help them get over last season’s loss in the play-in tournament.
