re: I tried to tell you guys about Brandon Ingram last year.

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Giving him the max was a top 5 worst decision this franchise has made.

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nah, Pelican can trade him at any time if they wanted for a good return.

The situation with Ingram is a little like the situation with Eric Gordon after we traded CP3

Obviously not exactly the same since Ingram actually played, and is a much much better prospect/player/human being

But both were the key pieces we got in a trade for our superstar. Both made the franchise have to choose between letting them walk for nothing or signing them to a huge deal. Both put the franchise in basically a "well we basically have to sign this dude to a max or that trade was a total bust". There are a lot of similaries.

And looking back 5 years from now I would not be surprised if we are kicking ourselves for signing the guy to a max deal in the same manner we were kicking ourselves with Gordon

Ingram doesn't have the injury issues, or the attitude issues, and doesn't openly resent playing pro basketball in NOLA (although you're gonna have a tough time convincing me Ingram actually loves it here either)

But at the time we pretty much had to sign Gordon. And we pretty much had to sign Ingram too. It is the life of a small market NBA team that historically has had zero actual success in the league

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You guys are really throwing a all star player away cause he missed some free throws

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The guy has not been good in the clutch for most of the season. It's just a fact. That last game was just a particularly glaring example.

He's a pretty good player and I'm glad we have him on the roster. But he just forces way too much, and plays way too much iso hero ball in important moments. He lacks consistency. And frankly often seems to not have nearly as high of a basketball IQ as I previously thought he had. He turns the ball over A LOT. And takes A LOT of bad shots. I don't want to get rid of the guy and he's a great piece to have. But a clutch superstar that can carry a franchise, he is not.

Many Pelicans fans thought we were getting the next Durant. Turns out, no, not really. And probably not even a poor mans version.

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And looking back 5 years from now I would not be surprised if we are kicking ourselves for signing the guy to a max deal in the same manner we were kicking ourselves with Gordon

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even for results-oriented thinking, this is wrong

Kobe actually had worse clutch numbers than Ingram does at 23 years old.

How did that go?

Clutch minutes are often clutch minutes, instead of being down +10, because of BI. Rephrased, while there is some truth to some BI problems in close games, the Pelicans wouldn't be in many of those games without BI. He's imperfect but so are most All-Star caliber players. He doesn't need to be a transcendent player to be on a championship team.

It was a good performance in the clutch overall, but needing 3 ft attempts to hit 1 was a bit concerning. He rebounded well nicely after that though.

I always see people talking about Ingram’s offensive game improving. Honestly, I like where he’s at on offense right now. It’s his defense where I want to see significant improvement. If he can become a respectable defender then that’d be huge.

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put him on the block and get 3 unprotected firsts, 3 pick swaps and 2, maybe 3 young prospects. The situations couldn’t be more starkly different.

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are these unprotected firsts from top teams or bottom feeders?
or 1 top 1 mid 1 bottom.

I'm in. give me 3 random firsts and two decent prospects.
and swap picks twice in next four years.
you get ingram.