NBA Rumors: Lakers-LaVine pitch, Nuggets front office rift, Brandon Ingram holdout

We are in the quietest portion of the NBA offseason, which just means more is happening behind the scenes. Free agency has slowed to a crawl and trade talks are dormant, but front offices never sleep, and the NBA has never been afraid of sudden groundswells in the drama department.

We are inching closer to what promises to be an exciting 2024-25 campaign. There should be plenty of trade and free agent rumors to satisfy our appetites in between tip-offs this season. Here is the latest scuttlebutt from league circles, which serves as proof that things are, indeed, still happening.

NBA Rumors: Brandon Ingram no-shows to Pelicans minicamp as contract dilemma festers

Brandon Ingram was one of two New Orleans Pelicans players to skip a week-long voluntary minicamp last week, per Williams Guillory of The Athletic. The organization and his teammates expected Ingram to attend, but he "never showed."

To add fuel to the speculative fire, Ingram posted a highly conspicuous Instagram Story that features a preacher talking about avoiding environments where people "don't know the true value of you."

Hmmm! I'm not one to wring hands over social media activity, but it's hard to read that as anything other than a direct shot at the Pelicans front office.

Ingram has been in trade rumors all summer amid reports that New Orleans does not want to hand Ingram the $200 million-plus contract extension he is eligible for. The only issue is other teams appear similarly trepidatious, thus Ingram remaining on the Pelicans roster.

We don't see too many holdouts in the NBA compared to other major American sports leagues. James Harden sandbagged his way through Houston's training camp once upon a time, but he showed up. Ben Simmons held out and, well, we all know how that went. It would be somewhat ironic if Ingram, picked second overall after Simmons in the 2016 NBA Draft, upheld that trend.

Another early postseason bow-out shined a harsh spotlight on Ingram's wonky fit next to Zion Williamson. New Orleans already went out and acquired Dejounte Murray, a ball-dominant playmaking guard whose 3-point shooting comes and goes. That is only going to compress the floor further and reduce Ingram's involvement in the offense. It's not an ideal position.

There's still time for Ingram to change teams before the season starts. If he's going to cause a scene in New Orleans, that could force the Pelicans' hand a bit. There's little incentive to begin a pivotal season with an open malcontent disrupting day-to-day activities.

NBA Rumors: Calvin Booth, Mike Malone not on same page in Nuggets front office

The Denver Nuggets are having a bad offseason. There's no way to sugarcoat it. Their first-round pick, DaRon Holmes, ruptured his Achilles in his Summer League debut. Meanwhile, the Nuggets stood idly while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signed a contract in Orlando, removing a key cog from one of the NBA's most potent starting lineups.

Denver's major offseason additions are Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric. Both have merits, but neither projects too favorably toward the playoffs and Westbrook in particular is a... unique stylistic challenge for Michael Malone and the coaching staff. It's hard not to be frustrated by the overt cheapness of a team that won the championship in 2023. Denver has now lost a critical rotation piece in consecutive summers (Bruce Brown, then KCP) without fielding viable replacements. It's a bad way to run your contender.

Success this season will depend heavily on the improvement of Denver's youth. Christian Braun, Julian Strawther, and Hunter Tyson are all due for expanded roles. Nuggets GM Calvin Booth is placing an awful lot of faith in his prospect evaluation skills despite a noteworthy lack of NBA proof. That appears to be causing a bit of a rift between Denver's leading voices.

According to ESPN's Zach Lowe, there have been "rumblings" of a breakdown in the relationship between Booth and Malone.

"That the coaching staff and front office, or at least the head coach and the front office, aren't exactly seeing eye to eye in Denver. To a degree even unusual for the NBA."

Frankly, Malone has every reason to be perturbed by Booth's strategy. Generally, financial commitment starts at the ownership level, but there is a clear belief — probably a wayward and unjustified belief — in the Nuggets' young core, which features mostly underwhelming late first-round picks. The Nuggets are operating as though Christian Braun and Julian Strawther can adequately cover for KCP, which is a losing bet.

It is pretty much impossible to build a bad team around Nikola Jokic, but the Nuggets are trying their hardest to build one that isn't good enough.

NBA Rumors: League exec proposes Zach LaVine-Lakers trade amid quiet offseason in LA

The Los Angeles Lakers remain committed to the bit. Rob Pelinka has not engineered a single trade or a noteworthy free agent addition. In short, the Lakers are running it back and hoping that a change at head coach is enough to overcome the gulf between LA and the top of the Western Conference. Newsflash, it is not. Especially with a completely unproven head coach like J.J. Redick.

There is still time for the Lakers to upgrade the roster, though, and one league executive has a bold strategy to improve Los Angeles' competitive odds — to dial up the Chicago Bulls and trade for Zach LaVine.

"Here was the gist of the pitch," writes Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. "LaVine could be gotten by simply matching the money he's owed, getting the Bulls out from underneath a contract that's likely going to last until 2027 and cost the team $138 million," Woike wrote. "That would allow the Lakers to keep their draft assets for a future deal or the inevitable rebuild."

Woike shoots down the concept, though, noting that the real Lakers front office "never has shown any real interest" in the Bulls' All-Star guard. LaVine has been at the center of trade rumors all summer, but the enormity of his contract (three years, $138 million left) has turned off potential suitors. LaVine has dealt with various lower-leg injuries over the course of his career and teams are starting to take note of his limited team success. We have never really seen LaVine on a competitive roster.

Now, the pitch isn't actually that absurd. The pendulum of public opinion has swung too far negative with LaVine. He's still quite good, so long as he's healthy. The Lakers would benefit from his volume shooting and complementary playmaking. LaVine would be well optimized next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, bombing spot-up 3s, running the occasional pick-and-roll, and torching rotating defenses off the catch with his dynamic first step. Defense is a concern, but the Lakers have an all-world rim protector in AD.

Acquiring LaVine for what amounts to nothing but salary absorption is going to make a front office look good one day. If not now, perhaps closer to the trade deadline once LaVine puts up numbers for a rebuilding Chicago squad.