New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram will be out indefinitely due to an ankle injury, the team announced on Sunday.

ESPN's Shams Charania first reported Ingram would be absent from the lineup without a timeline for his return.

Ingram left the Pelicans game on Saturday during the third quarter. This development also comes just days after Ingram revealed that he wants to be with a "winning, competitive environment" for his long-term future.

Ingram will be a free agent following the 2024-25 season.

Ingram suffered the injury when he rolled his ankle on the foot of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Lu Dort and was guided off of the court by teammates. He finished the game with five points, three assists and one rebound in 19 minutes.

He has had a strong start to the 2024-25 season, averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 18 games. He had previously missed five games due to right plantaris tendinitis.

New Orleans is currently 5-19 and are in last place in the Western Conference. Injuries have not been kind to the franchise as Zion Williamson, Jose Alvarado and Jordan Hopkins are all dealing with significant injuries as well.

Still, the team's struggles and Ingram's desire to be in a winning culture may complicate the chances of him signing an extension. With him now on the injury report, the Pelicans will really need to figure out how to convince him to stay or pivot to replacing his production in the future.

The reported "expectation" is that New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, an impending free agent, will be open to a short-team deal next offseason.

Jake Fischer reported the news Friday for The Stein Line newsletter: "The current options are slim. So there's an expectation among league sources familiar with the situation that Ingram and his new agent representation at Klutch Sports will be open to pursuing a short-term payday starting next season."

The 27-year-old Ingram, who's in his ninth NBA season, is averaging 23.2 points on 46.8 percent shooting, 5.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists.

Ingram's Pelicans days appear numbered.

First and foremost, the injury-ravaged Pels are 5-18, second-last in the Western Conference. It's conceivable at this point that New Orleans, as NBA teams typically do, just blows it up and starts anew. And Ingram may want to part ways as is. He reportedly hopes to look for a winning, competitive team at his next stop, as Charania reported.

Second, Ingram and the Pels had the chance for a long-term extension last offseason. That didn't happen, and the door is open for his exit.

"Brandon wants to stay here. ... At the same time, there is a financial reality that we all deal with," Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin said in June, per ESPN's Shams Charania.

Ingram is a talented player and an All-Star at his best. He's averaged 23.1 PPG for New Orleans since being traded from the Los Angeles Lakers in the Anthony Davis deal in 2019.

He's now linked up with the powerful Rich Paul-led Klutch Sports Group, which represents superstars such as LeBron James, Davis and De'Aaron Fox.

Ingram will be getting paid handsomely, whether it's a short- or long-term deal. A shorter deal that eventually sees Ingram continue his success could very lead to a max contract in a few years too.

In the interim, Ingram is playing out the final year on his contract. He just returned after missing five games with a right calf injury, dropping 29 points in a 126-124 win over the Phoenix Suns.

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson will have his left hamstring strain re-evaluated in two weeks, the Pelicans announced on Wednesday.

Williams "is progressing well through rehabilitation," according to the team.

The Pelicans announced on Nov. 9 that Williams would be out "indefinitely" with the left hamstring injury.

Williamson had already sat out four of the Pelicans' first 10 games of the season before suffering the injury. When available, he was averaging 22.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 31 minutes per game.

Although Williamson played a career-high 70 games for the Pelicans last season, his latest injury means he has seen all six of his NBA campaigns so far significantly impacted by injury.

After playing just 24 games in his rookie season due to a knee injury, Williams was held to 61 games in his second year after fracturing a finger.

He missed the entire 2021-22 campaign with a foot injury, and was limited to 29 games after suffering a strained right hamstring in 2023-24.

Last season Williamson's campaign ended early once again when he suffered a left hamstring strain during a play-in game against the Los Angeles Lakers. He was then sidelined for the entirety of the Pelicans' sweep by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

At the time of his latest injury, Williamson had missed 210 out of the 400 games the Pelicans have played since drafting him in 2019. New Orleans has yet to make it past the first round in two postseason bids over that span.

The Pelicans will hope to get good injury news about Williamson in two weeks as the team looks to recover from a 4-18 start to the season.

Despite his continued durability issues, the New Orleans Pelicans are reportedly not looking to move on from forward Zion Williamson.

Speaking Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show (h/t HoopsHype), ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania was asked about the Pels' potential options when it comes to getting the five-year $197.23 million contract he signed in 2022 off the books:

Charania noted that while the Pelicans could waive Williamson and get out of it that way, he doesn't anticipate it happening, saying:

"There are ways where, if the Pelicans were to waive him, they could potentially do that for free. However, I don't believe that's something that's on the table right now. The Pelicans have no intention of waiving Zion Williamson. They want to figure out a way—any way—to find the right people around him and do anything necessary to get him on the court. That's their number one objective."

Williamson, 24, has appeared in only six games this season and is currently out with a strained hamstring.

Selected first overall in the 2019 NBA draft out of Duke, Williamson was expected to be a dominant force at the NBA level, and while he has shown glimpses of being precisely that, staying on the court has been a struggle.

Over his first four NBA seasons, Williamson was named an All-Star twice, but he missed an entire season during that stretch with a foot injury and appeared in fewer than 30 games in two of the other three seasons.

Williamson finally had a largely healthy season in 2023-24, appearing in a career-high 70 games and averaging 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.1 steals per contest, while shooting 57.0 percent from the field.

With a healthy Zion, the Pelicans had their winningest season since 2008-09 when they were the Charlotte Hornets, although they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Intent on capitalizing on the momentum they built last season, the Pelicans acquired guard Dejounte Murray in an offseason trade with the Atlanta Hawks, adding him to a core of Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.

That made the Pels a trendy pick to do some damage in the Western Conference this season, but with all of their key players missing some time due to injury, they have been among the NBA's biggest disappointments with a Western Conference-worst 4-18 record.

Williamson has only appeared in six games so far this season, averaging 22.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists, and it is unclear when he could potentially return.

Charania said during his appearance on the Pat McAfee Show that Williamson is "not close" to returning despite having already been on the shelf for a month.

Without arguably their best player in the fold, it will likely be difficult for the Pelicans to fight their way out of the basement this season, meaning they may have to give consideration to looking toward next season and beyond.

Even if moving on from Williamson isn't on the table, it is probably safe to assume the Pels would be open to trading Ingram, who will hit free agency during the offseason.

As things currently stand, the Pelicans are positioned to possibly land one of the top picks in the 2025 NBA draft, which could land them an elite prospect such as Duke's Cooper Flagg or Rutgers' Ace Bailey to pair with Williamson provided he can get his health back on track.

As trade rumors continue to circle around New Orleans Pelicans star forward Brandon Ingram given his lack of an extension—and have since the summer—more insight into what he's looking for in a new team, should he be dealt, have emerged.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Tuesday that Ingram "wants to be part of a winning, competitive environment" and noted that the Pelicans are either going to trade him or the two sides will agree on an extension.

A trade feels more likely. Over the weekend, ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that the two sides are "at a stalemate" and "can't agree on a contract extension," with Ingram set to hit unrestricted free agency this upcoming summer.

But trade discussions have proven to be complicated, too.

As Windhorst wrote: "Trade talks since last summer have failed to align. Finding a place where New Orleans can send Ingram's $36 million salary and get value while also reducing salary—the Pelicans are currently in the luxury tax for the first time ever and not likely to stay there—is hard enough. But finding a deal with a team Ingram will be comfortable signing a new contract with has also stalled talks, per sources."

The Pelicans have little incentive to let the season play out and hope Ingram returns as a free agent. The team is just 4-18 this season and, barring a miraculous and unforeseen turnaround, isn't going to come close to either a playoff or Play-In Tournament berth this season in the loaded Western Conference.

And it's not exactly the "winning, competitive environment" Ingram reportedly wants.

Keeping him without an extension would be an easier risk to take if the Pelicans were title contenders and going for broke this season. But that almost assuredly isn't happening, and it's hard to see them paying him top-of-the-market money to retain him.

The Pelicans are already paying Zion Williamson $39.9 million next season, C.J. McCollum $36.6 million—at 33, McCollum would probably be even more difficult to trade than Ingram, though the Pels could look to move him off the books this summer as an expiring contract, though they might have to give up draft capital to do so—and Dejounte Murray $31.5 million.

So for now, the Pelicans and Ingram are in a bit of a holding pattern. But a trade still feels like the most likely scenario, tricky as it might be.

New Orleans Pelicans star forward Zion Williamson's hamstring injury doesn't appear to be progressing much amid his month-long absence.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Williamson, who hasn't played since Nov. 6, is "not close to coming back."

Charania noted that the Pelicans got some "good news" recently, as he was able to get back onto the court over the weekend. However, he did "very, very light activity," and New Orleans will take a gradual approach to getting him back into playing form.

The injury woes that have plagued Williamson since he entered the NBA as the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft were not expected to persist this year. Charania noted that the 24-year-old was in the best shape of his career at the start of the year before injuring his hamstring.

"It is tough for Zion because he came into the season, he was the lightest he's weighed since his rookie year, he came in great shape, and to have him hurt already, that hamstring has been a chronic issue for him, he's had multiple hamstring strains over the last few years, he can't catch a break," Charania said.

Williamson appeared in six games this season and averaged 22.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.2 blocks. His 45.2 percent shooting from the field marked the first time in his career that he's connected on less than 57 percent of his shots. The Pelicans (4-18) were 2-4 in games he played.

New Orleans also endured injuries to key players like Dejounte Murray and CJ McCollum, which has led to their disappointing start to the season. Both Murray and McCollum are back in the lineup, but the team's losing streak extended to nine straight games with a 124-112 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.

The Pelicans will have to continue getting used to life without Williamson when they return to action on Thursday against the Phoenix Suns (11-8).

The 2024-25 season has been an abysmal one for the New Orleans Pelicans to this point, and they could look to trade some of their veteran players as a result.

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported Monday there are executives around the NBA who think the Pelicans may be "willing to listen" to potential trade offers involving CJ McCollum. One executive also said the team "should move McCollum" and will "likely" trade Brandon Ingram.

That Ingram might be moved comes as no surprise, as he and New Orleans were unable to come to terms on a long-term contract extension during the offseason.

He is now set to be a free agent after the season, and the Western Conference team could get a significant return package in a trade before he potentially would have signed elsewhere.

Yet McCollum is signed through the 2025-26 campaign and remains a productive player.

The guard is averaging 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals this season, although he has played just eight games while battling injury. He is one of a number of Pelicans who have missed time this season, which is one reason they are on the bottom of the Western Conference standings at 4-17.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for a team featuring plenty of notable players in Zion Williamson, Ingram, McCollum and Dejounte Murray. But Ingram is the only one from that list who has appeared in double-digit games to this point.

Giving up on what is shaping up to be a lost campaign and moving multiple pieces could allow the Pelicans to reset and continue building around Williamson in the future with more draft picks and younger players.

With that as the backdrop, Scotto questioned whether the 33-year-old McCollum is also a "long-term fit" in the backcourt alongside the 28-year-old Murray when discussing the rumors circulating around the former.

Perhaps those rumors will develop into an actual trade if New Orleans doesn't drastically turn things around before February's deadline.

Brandon Ingram is slated to be under the microscope during the upcoming offseason as a free agent, and he reportedly will be with a new agency as he looks for his next contract.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Sunday that Ingram signed with the Rich Paul-led Klutch Sports Group. This comes after the forward and New Orleans Pelicans did not come to terms on a contract extension or trade before the 2024-25 campaign.

Prior to signing with Klutch, Ingram was represented by Excel Sports Management.

The Duke product was the No. 2 overall pick of the 2016 NBA draft and started his career on the Los Angeles Lakers. However, he was part of the trade package the Lakers sent the Pelicans in exchange for Anthony Davis before the 2019-20 campaign.

Ingram was an All-Star in his first season with New Orleans and then signed a five-year, $158 million max deal with the club in November 2020.

Durability has been something of a concern for the 27-year-old, who has never played more than 64 games during his tenure with the Pelicans. Yet he is effective when he is on the floor and is averaging 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists a night through 16 games this season.

There will be questions about whether New Orleans plans on bringing him back until an agreement is made or he signs elsewhere. Charania noted executive vice president David Griffin said in June, "Brandon wants to stay here. ... At the same time, there is a financial reality that we all deal with."

New Orleans and Klutch Sports will have to navigate that financial reality together if there is an agreement to be made.

Brandon Ingram will be a free agent after the 2024-25 season, and his future doesn't appear to be with the New Orleans Pelicans.

But according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, finding a trade for the star forward has proven to be difficult:

Sources told ESPN the two sides can't agree on a contract extension and trade talks since last summer have failed to align. Finding a place where New Orleans can send Ingram's $36 million salary and get value while also reducing salary—the Pelicans are currently in the luxury tax for the first time ever and not likely to stay there—is hard enough. But finding a deal with a team Ingram will be comfortable signing a new contract with has also stalled talks, per sources.

Ingram, 27, has averaged 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game this season and has been one of the few Pelicans to remain relatively healthy, appearing in 16 contests. New Orleans, meanwhile, has been awful to start the season, going 4-16, and the team's playoff hopes appear to be extinguished just a quarter into the 2024-25 campaign.

Dealing Ingram makes sense if New Orleans isn't going to stay in the luxury tax before he leaves for nothing in free agency. To this point, however, such a deal has yet to materialize, and it reportedly isn't down to a lack of due diligence from New Orleans.

The New Orleans Pelicans aren't expected to take a "gap year" this season, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst.

Given the team's horrid 4-16 start and the barrage of injuries on the roster, it wouldn't be shocking if the Pelicans essentially lined themselves up to get a high draft pick and repositioned as a potential contender when everyone is healthy next season.

But Windhorst noted that, "Right now, that isn't a consideration in New Orleans, sources told ESPN, as the Pelicans want to see what their hopefully eventually healthy roster can do. But with Zion Williamson still out indefinitely with a hamstring injury, it is something to keep an eye on two months from now when the trade deadline approaches."

The Pelicans probably aren't going to crawl their way back into the playoff picture. They are at the very bottom of a deep Western Conference that currently has 10 teams with winning records and a talented Minnesota Timberwolves squad that is looming just behind that bunch at 9-10.

Even to reach a .500 record, the Pelicans would need to finish the season going 37-25, and a .500 record might not even qualify them for a Play-In Tournament berth. It didn't for the Houston Rockets last season, who finished 41-41 but were still five games out of the No. 10 seed in a loaded West.

Plus, shaking up this roster going forward might make sense. Brandon Ingram remains on the trade market, with Windhorst noting that "the two sides can't agree on a contract extension and trade talks since last summer have failed to align."

He continued: "Finding a place where New Orleans can send Ingram's $36 million salary and get value while also reducing salary—the Pelicans are currently in the luxury tax for the first time ever and not likely to stay there—is hard enough. But finding a deal with a team Ingram will be comfortable signing a new contract with has also stalled talks, per sources."

The Pelicans may not be ready for a gap year, but it's a good draft to have a top-five pick at your disposal, with prospects like Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey, among others, looking like truly ascendant talents. If Ingram is going to potentially be traded anyway, Williamson is out of commission for a while and the rest of the roster is unlikely to right this ship, then maybe the Pelicans should consider the benefits of regrouping for 2025-26.

It's probably too early to wave the proverbial white flag. By the turn of the new year, however, the Pelicans should have a pretty good idea of where this season is headed. More than likely, that direction will be pointed downward.