About Brandon Ingram and his future in New Orleans

Brandon Ingram has always been skinny. He was like a savory when I first met him in Duke’s locker room. And he’s still as lean a cutter as Kevin Durant.

I covered Ingram’s stint overseas with Team USA during the 2023 FIBA ​​World Cup. After his first post-training media session in Manila, he blinked at me through a crowd of Filipino content creators and European reporters. The crowd ended. I held out my hand and then he blinked differently.

“I know you,” Ingram said.

“Yeah, man. I’m Jake.”

Just in case, I reminded him that our interactions began during his first NCAA Tournament run. We’ve talked again in New Orleans over the years since Ingram settled in with the Pelicans.

“Damn, bro,” Ingram said. “You grew out your hair.”

Ingram now sports a scraggly beard and long braids. But he always looked the same and played the same during his five-plus seasons in New Orleans. The injury-plagued Pelicans have gone 5-for-18 from those goals in the 2024-25 season – Ingram himself missed time with a calf injury – but returned to lead New Orleans past Phoenix on Thursday night, scoring one Another 20-point performance. Natural game structure is included. In his second franchise, he averaged 23.0 points, 5.5 points and 5.5 assists in 303 games. Ingram made his All-Star breakthrough as a Pelican. With that resume, he naturally believes he could command maximum cash if the right situation presented itself for him, like Philadelphia did for Paul George.

If.

If the right situation had arisen, Ingram would have been traded last summer.