After watching their postseason fall apart when it mattered most, with Brandon Ingram disappearing on the way to a 0-4 sweep at the hands of Oklahoma City Thunder, the New Orleans Pelicans knew they couldn't head into the 2024-25 season with the same old roster.
Now sure, some players weren't going to be moved, as Zion Williamson remains untouchable, CJ McCollum's contract is unlikely to be moved, and the dynamic wing duo of Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III are just coming into their own, but that didn't stop David Griffin from scouring the market, turning over some stones, and making a pretty sizeable trade for DeJounte Murray without moving off of any of the team's top five players.
And yet, after shipping Cody Zeller, Larry Nance Jr., E. J. Liddell, and Dyson Daniels out in the Murray deal, allowing Naji Marshall to sign with Dallas, and watching Jonas Valanciunas sign a three-year, $30 million contract with the Washington Wizards, the Pelicans find themselves with much less depth than when the offseason began and some absolute stopgaps at center.
First, the Pelicans drafted Yves Missi out of Baylor 21st overall, a promising young prospect who could eventually become a player for New Orleans but feels more like a long-term project than the second coming of Derek Lively. The team then went out and signed another center in free agency in Daniel Theis, a slightly undersized stretch five who split his 2023-24 season between the Indiana Pacers – where he played one game – and the Los Angeles Clippers, where he averaged 6.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 17.1 minutes of action a night.
Could Theis and Missi, plus Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, who went from a two-way contract to a standard NBA contract last year, cobble together enough minutes to keep the Pelicans alive in both the regular season and the playoffs, opening up more minutes for Williams at the center spot too? Potentially so, but considering the Pelicans still have Ingram under contract, and they would most assuredly like to move off of him before the start of the regular season, the front office would be wise to place a call to one of the center-heavy teams like the Brooklyn Nets or the Portland Trail Blazers to see if they can't make a deal and bring back a big man to fill out their depth chart.
No more complacency for the New Orleans Pelicans
Discussing how the Pelicans have addressed their free agency situation after years stuck in the middle of the Western Conference, Griffin told reporters that he had very little interest in sticking to the same old same old and was instead willing to sacrifice continuity in the name of improving the roster in a major way.
“In the past, we’ve always erred on the side of continuity, and our takeaway has been, ‘Let’s see this group healthy.’ I think we’ve seen it enough,” Griffin told reporters at the end of the regular season via The Athletic. “I want to be really, really clear: This is not going to be a summer of complacency. It’s time to get better.”
So, if the Pelicans want to make some serious move and reshape their roster in a major way, what does that mean for Ingram, who has become a bit of a posterboy for complacency in the Big Easy? Well, Griffin touched on that this offseason too and let it be known that while Ingram would like to stick around in New Orleans, he's going to do whatever's best for the team heading into the future, be that keeping the All-Star around or trading him for better-fitting pieces.
“Brandon wants to stay here. He believes in what we are building. That is meaningful to us,” Griffin explained. “At the same time, there is a financial reality that we all deal with. I think we’re excited about Brandon. We know he’s excited about us. Usually, those things yield good results one way or the other.”
Would it be a disaster if the Pelicans didn't trade Ingram and had to keep him on the roster to at least start the 2024-25 NBA season? No, as long as New Orleans adds another center to their roster, they should be just fine, but considering where Jones and Murphey could be heading into the future, the Pelicans owe it to themselves to give the duo their best shot to shine heading into their primes, which is a lot harder to do if Ingram is clogging up three quarters of any given game at one of the two forward spots.
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