07-09-2024, 08:54 AM
(07-09-2024, 06:23 AM)SleepingHero Wrote: I keep trying to find the Brandon Ingram team and I'm running out of ones that make sense for New Orleans.
Not only does the team need to have a starting center that interests New Orleans, but they also have to be willing to give Ingram the contract he wants or else they're risking losing him for nothing the following summer.
That narrows it down to basically no one. I mean we see Lavine right now who is overpaid at 43 mil. Ingram's max contract will start him at around 48 and continue to climb to 57. Not only is Ingram nowhere close to that sort of worth, his health also makes that contract even more terrifying.
1 team that kind of made sense to me was Portland.
NOP: Ayton
POR: Ingram
1 for 1 swap. Portland gets off of Ayton as they have too many centers anyways with Timelord, Ayton, and now Clingan. Positional wise, it makes sense. Then you start thinking about why would Portland want Ingram? They are trying to be bad next year. They're trying to reduce their salary too, and an Ingram extension will have them flirt with the first apron with a payroll of 183mil the next offseason. Plus does Ingram+Jerami Grant work together? They just traded for Avdija too! Do the Pelicans add in CJ McCollum and take Grant off of Portlands hands? All that does is swap 2 bad contracts for each team but opens up POR to a massive extension thats looming over their heads in the future.
So for so many reasons Ingram doesn't make sense there.
ATL had a chance for Ingram and they actively chose to keep Capela and Okongwu over Ingram.
The last team that kind of makes sense to me are the Bucks.
NOP: Brook Lopez+Bobby Portis
MIL: Ingram+1sts.
Theoretically Ingram makes sense as a Khris Middleton replacement. They've been shopping Brook this entire summer too. The hangup? MIL is a 2nd apron team so they can't aggregate 2 guys for another guy making more. So that kind of disqualifies them anyways.
So I'm left with wondering how the heck can the Pelicans get a center if they can't use Ingram? I think this Theis signing is more of a desperation stop gap as they figure out what to do than it is as for any sort of backup plan. I don't think New Orleans anticipated an icy center market or Ingram market, or they probably would have placed a bigger importance on retaining Valanciunas.
Good analogy, but now the Bucks are without a center. Lopez is the starter, and Portis technically is his backup.