Grading the Brandon Ingram trade: Raptors get a talent, but the move raises questions about their plan
On Wednesday, a crowded in the American Professional League, another big step broke out before the hour arrived at midnight before 3 pm on Thursday The deadline tradeWith New Orleans P it And according to what was reported Striker Brandon Ingram to Toronto Raptors in a deal ending the attack of the attacking stars in Louisiana after five and a half seasons-and takes some interesting decisions in the summer.
Sun Shams Reports ESPN RAPTORS Ingram will receive in opposite goalkeeper Bruce Brown JR. The center Kelly Olynyk, which is a choice from the first round and the second round. according to Blake Murphy from SPORTSNETThe first manager is the choice of 2026 in Indiana Pesrez, who accompanied Brown to Toronto in the Pascal Siamam deal last year; Colleague Michael Grang reports The second director will come in 2031.
Let’s establish trade from the perspective of each team, starting from the north of the border:
Toronto Raptors: B
According to what was reported, the head of the team, Masai Ogeiri, and the General Manager Bobby and Webster, entered the deadline Add “important piece” To start rebuilding the prosperous RAPTORS, with attention to stopping the continuous decline in the concession since the 2019 US Professional League Championship and climbing its rise from the East basement. (Raptors sits on 16-35, in the thirteenth place at the conference, after that Loss of the explosion on Wednesday To Grizzlies.) This research fell on Ingram, which is a compound texture with one gem of stars under his belt and a smooth offensive game that It is said Leave Ujiri “Fascinated” as a possible supplement for the Scottie Barnes Games.
As a theater for pure talents, there is a lot that you like in Ingram, the goal of my goal and the improved facilitator, which reached a medium of 23 points in dividing the shooting 47/37/85, 5.5 rebounds and 5.2 passes for each game During the past five seasons. there We are The reasons he spent most of the last year in the trade bloc, though.
It has proven to be a fragile attack alongside the Jumbo point forward with an external shot in Zion Williamson, which could wear her head again next to Barnes. One of the manifestations of appropriate cases: the congestion of the semi -court spacing, which often resulted from the preference of Ingram to work in the medium term instead of moving its 3 -point size, despite strong shooting numbers from abroad.
The defensive Ingram voltage has always left something required when it is on the field, given its 6 -foot, 8 feet, 3 feet and speed. He also spent a long time on The court has lost 115 games over the past four seasons – and the count. (The high ankle sprain has been kept on the shelf over the past two months … Given that Toronto holds the fifth American Professional League record, and therefore a 42.1 % opportunity to choose the highest four in the US Professional League draft 2025Perhaps giving him more time to rest is the worst thing in the world.)
All of this adds to a very good player, but he is not great-the margin of all the stars instead of the candidate of all the American Professional League-which is a A very difficult player to build under the new collective negotiation agreement. This led to a difference between Ingram, who is in the last year of the extension of Max for a period of five years It signed in 2020And the Pelican, who have never paid a luxurious tax (and who decreased under the tax earlier on Wednesday by the Trading Reserve Center, Daniel This to Oklahoma City), above. What he has the next The contract must appear.
This is the problem of Toronto now to solve it – and with Barnes A maximum extension of his rising contract What is about to start, and with his novice colleagues Emmanuel Quickly, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl are already on books Less than 80 million dollars Next season, it is likely to be thorny. Inclurm And according to what was excited About the possibility of a new start in Toronto. Nevertheless, if one of them re -signing an crime and beright to prove the repetition, putting Raptors in a position they need to try to turn the RJ to better balance the list.
Inclurm Qualified to get an additional three years extension and 144 million dollars Currently, if Ujiri and Webster want to walk on this road; If not, the Raptors now has the rights of its birds, allowing them to bypass the salary ceiling to keep it when it strikes an unrestricted free agency in July. The amount of $ 13.4 million is due to Olynyk in the coming season, creates a larger space for the maneuver below the luxury tax line so that Toronto can keep the Ingram around it … but it still places Raptors in a line to the foot somewhat bad, highlighting the shooting, Defensive fragile and perhaps not Significantly Closer to the declared Ujiri goal of returning Raptors to the mixture for the fixed dispute.
“Sports revolves around winning only, and no one cares about anything if you don’t win,” Ujiri He told reporters Last summer. “You are not relevant.”
Add a talent like an Ingram paying SMIDGE needle. Whether it’s so enough to justify the bombing of the capital in the midst of what appears to be rebuilding in the early stage, though-it is sufficient that it is worth paying the 27-year-old well to $ 40 million annually against this privilege-I am not sure.
New Orleans Pelicans: B
If you are trading a star, you want to go out with the salaries, and the newly applicable capital and talent. Well, two out of three are not bad.
The expired Brown contract will be wiped by $ 23 million in swan books at the end of the season. Olynyk’s minutes and production faded in its thirteenth season, but the 33 -year -old is still a passer -by and their reliability (by 47.4 % of 3 points this season, although in 1.7 attempts only per night) proved that it is useful for Lilimon, which can His contract, which costs $ 13.4 million for the next season, is a matching salary in another treatment or another source of cost when it ends in 2026.
Indiana first and far -protected Indiana helps the draft cabinets after New Orleans Send the first two of last summer For Dejounte Murray, which came out for the season after that Achilles torn tendon torn. Ingram was transferred before he could return to sprain in the ankle, it could help the swan that was transferred to the injury-now 12-39, another death in the West, with the second record in the American Professional League-to avoid a sufficient competitiveness to win more games at the bottom. An extension of what can be recommended from the Ping-Pong Perspective.
Perhaps the greatest benefit to Pelican, though, is to cleanse the Trey Murphy III path to strengthen the high role in the hierarchy of the Pelican to which he ascended among many injuries in New Orleans.
The fourth general striker is in the midst of the penetration season, with an average of 22.6 points, 5 rebound balls and 3.1 passes for each game, and 58 % photography on Rumiyat 2, and 38.2 % in more than eight attempts 3 points per game and 89 % of an error line. Since Murphy was considered largely as a landless owner early in his career, she flourished in a full top scorer in all stadiums not limited to production like option 1, but doing this on an updated diet that corresponds to more precisely with Williamson the act of creator the time Their preserved and imitation partners.
With him Four years and 112 million dollars It is scheduled to kick next season. Al -Ja`da needs to give priority to Morphi as a basic player in the starting lineup and arrange the offensive attack. The transition from Ingram makes this easier and puts New Orleans in a position that allows him to build on the essence of Murphy, Williamson, Mauri, Ace Herb Jones, and Rookie Center Missi and choose a high lottery in this loaded draft 2025. This is a very strong starting point to return to a dispute After the season, if Bels can finally get the benefit of some good injuries. It should happen one Of these years … right?
