When news broke that the Utah Jazz had extended their top player, Lauri Markkanen, to a new five-year, $238 million contract on August 7th, it effectively spelled out the team's plans for the 2024-25 season.
After spending the better part of the offseason linked to a half-dozen teams, Markkanen is now ineligible to be traded before the February 6th trade deadline, and thus, will be a member of the Jazz for at least the 2024-25 NBA season, where his team will hopefully look to capitalize on that fact by finally breaking their playoff drought.
The easiest way to get there? Trade for another former All-Star player like Brandon Ingram, the Los Angeles Lakers draftee who has averaged 23.1 points per game over his past five seasons as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Set to enter the final year of a five-year, $158.25 million contract he signed back in 2020, Ingram has been pretty openly on the block since he underwhelmed in the playoffs earlier this year and, as a result, has also been a heavy topic of trade speculation over the course of the offseason.
If the Jazz want to go for it this fall and use the 2024-25 season as a measuring stick for their current roster instead of pushing for better lottery odds in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes, Ingram is about as good an option as they could hope for at the moment, especially considering his deflated value on the open market.
Now, as NBA fans know very well, the Pelicans are incredibly light in the center department at the moment, with Daniel Theis likely slotting in as the team's expected starter despite having never started more than 27 games in a season since 2020-21. While the Pelicans would likely drive Ingram to Utah themselves if they could bring back Walker Kessler, such a deal might actually require the Pelicans surrendering a draft pick to get a deal done, which is probably a non-starter for New Orleans based on optics alone.
For that very reason, the most realistic trade framework for a deal between the Pelicans and the Jazz has to center around Ingram for John Collins, Jordan Clarkson – or Collin Sexton with more money outgoing – and a “bad” first-round pick.
On paper, the deal makes sense for both sides; Collins and Kessler can't play together because neither is a good enough floor spacer to be a stretch player, and the Jazz have three players who can more or less play the same role in Clarkson, Sexton, and Keyonte George. While the Jazz have invested heavily in forwards over the past two drafts, with Taylor Hendricks going ninth overall in 2023 and Cody Williams going tenth earlier this summer, neither player is as good as Ingram right now, which matters if Utah wants to contend for the playoffs this season.
And as for the Pelicans? Collins is a center.
Period.
If they can't steal Jarrett Allen from the Cavs or Nicolas Claxton from the Nets, with both players currently ineligible to be traded, why not recoup a draft pick, add a sixth-man scorer and a starting-caliber big man, and actually go for it this season, rounding out a summer of win-now moves with one of the most important ones yet?
Ingram on the Jazz makes Utah better overall, and adding the combo of Collins and Clarkson to the Pelicans makes New Orleans better, too, so in the end, this really could be a win-win swap, the likes of which rarely happens in the NBA.
Brandon Ingram landing with the Jazz has been rumored for weeks
While the idea of Ingram heading to Utah has picked up steam since Markkanen signed his extension after the August 6th deadline, the concept isn't new-new, as experts have been linking the two sides for a few weeks now as a Plan B if the Jazz opted to keep their 7-foot Finnish All-Star.
Discussing the concept on the From the Wing podcast, Nola.com's Christian Clark laid out why a pairing could make some sense if Utah re-upped Markkanen, as the price, when coupled with Ingram's production, could elevate Utah in 2024-25.
“Another thing I’ve heard is that assuming Lauri gets extended in Utah, I think it is possible the Jazz are one of the teams maybe interested in Brandon Ingram here. If they sign Lauri back up again they could just try to go the other way, and try to be more competitive in the west. And one of the ways they could do that is go out and try to get Brandon,” Nola.com’s Christian Clark explained via Gulf Life.
“And I think this is relevant to the Pelicans because I think they’re gonna make one more real attempt at moving Brandon Ingram before the start of next season. It’s very possible he is a Pelican next season, and they just kind of roll with this funky roster they’ve got, and maybe they try to sort it out mid-season. But I do think post-Lauri decision, there is going to be an attempt from the Pelicans to at least look at the Ingram trade market one more time. They know this roster doesn’t make that much sense, they know this isn’t ideal. I just think we’re gonna see generally the Ingram market pick back up after early August.”
Because the Jazz are so loaded with assets and have a very interesting team overall, Utah could give up a draft pick for Ingram now without worrying about giving him an immediate extension, as if he walks, it really wouldn't ruin their long-term team-building strategy one way or another. If the Jazz could unload a few non-essential players like Collins and either Clarkson or Sexton to bring in Ingram, the option should 100 percent be on the table.
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