NBA Draft: 5 destinations for Brandon Ingram
By John Buhler
West. Southwest. New Orleans Pelicans. 2. player. 69.
While the 2015-16 NBA season was a lost cause from the start for the down-on-their-luck New Orleans Pelicans, perhaps the Pelicans picked a great year to be a bad basketball team. New Orleans has a bare bones of a roster, a team that can’t play defense, and most importantly its star player power forward Anthony Davis shut down for the season due to a shoulder injury.
New Orleans is in 12th place in the Western Conference with a 26-43 record through 69 games. The Pelicans have the sixth worst record in the NBA and would need some luck to get to either No. 1 or No. 2 in the 2016 NBA Draft. However, should they be able to get either high-end selection, Ingram makes a ton of sense for the Pelicans going forward.
Like with Simmons, Ingram won’t have to change his game hardly at all to coexist to play with the Pelicans. While this is an NBA team, it’s not composed mostly of NBA level players. New Orleans needs talent in any way, shape, or form. Ingram would be a perfect partner for Davis at small forward.
While they both have similar builds and play eerily similar games, Davis and Ingram could grow together in the New Orleans frontcourt and become a Western Conference powerhouse for the next several years. Davis agreed to a massive extension to stay in the Crescent City instead of looking to hit free agency soon. Ingram would be locked in with the Pelicans on his rookie contract.
General manager Dell Demps would have to do more than just draft Ingram to keep the Pelicans anywhere near relevant in the Western Conference, but the pairing of Davis and Ingram in the New Orleans frontcourt is potentially a scary combination for years to come.
Next: 1. Los Angeles Lakers