Right before the NBA’s trade deadline came to an end last week, the Pelicans dealt Brandon Ingram to the Raptors. Even though the team received two new players, plus a first and second-round picks for the future, many inside the New Orleans locker room regretted losing their star teammate.
The Louisiana team were the first to announce the trade. “The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that the team has acquired Bruce Brown Jr., Kelly Olynyk, a 2026 first round pick and a 2031 second round pick from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Brandon Ingram,” they wrote on Pelicans.com.
This is why Zion Williamson is still hurting over the fact that they lost his former All-Star. Ingram was averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per match while shooting 46.5% from the field and 37.4% from beyond the arc in 18 games this season.
Once the trade was completed, the Pelicans power forward talked about the squad losing star power. “That was tough to see him go. He’s somebody that’s been here with me since day one. All the ups and downs of the Pels.
He then added: “You wish it could be different, but I think he was just at a point where he felt like he had to do what’s best for him. As a friend, all you can do is support that decision.”
Even though both players were expected to be a dominant duo, injuries really affected their joint performances throughout the years. Zion and Brandon only played in 34.9% of available contests together (154 out of 441) and incredibly enough, never participated in a single playoff match together.
As for the Toronto club, GM Bobby Webster remains hopeful that everything will come together in the long term. “Interesting to see as we add a first-round pick, add a second-round pick, hopefully able to retain Ingram, see what that team looks like, but we’ll temper expectations as this team grows,” he said.
Webster then continued the assessment of his team: “Scottie Barnes is 23, Immanuel Quickley is 25, RJ Barrett is 24, Brandon is still just 27, so I think even from that perspective it’s a young core. We’ll continue the rebuild, I think this is a progress. No change in progress or timeline.”
