Unexpectedly, the first team to dismantle the team in the offseason turned out to be the Pelicans?
According to reporter Evan Sidery, Ingram has a four-year, $208 million contract extension this offseason, but the Pelicans have no intention of keeping him, and their first plan this offseason is to take the draft pick to send Yingge away in exchange for an All-Star to partner Zion.
The team's newcomer Murphy has been in excellent form this season, eligible to sign a contract extension between $20 million and $25 million in the offseason, with all signals pointing to him replacing Ingram as the future of the team's forward line.
This news has also been confirmed by several reporters, according to Hoopshype's Michael Scotto, the Pelicans will continue to build a team around Zion, they recognize the disconnect in the roster, they will look for roster upgrades to revamp the team space, for which the team's center Valanciunas will also leave the team in the offseason, CJ's current position is to be determined.
According to Shams's revelations, after G2 in the first round of this year's playoffs, Ingram broke out in the locker room with the team's coach, and Ingram wanted to get more balls.
So all the signs are that the Pelicans could have a major earthquake brewing this season, and their rebuilding efforts over the past few years have been a failure, and Ingram has entered the countdown to leaving.
Back in G4 in the first round of this year's playoffs, the Pelicans fell behind 0-3 in the series, Ingram played 38 minutes in this life-and-death battle, 2 of 14, 0 of 3 three-pointers, only 8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 turnovers, the lowest plus/minus of -14 in the game, and the team was swept 0-4.
After the whole series, Ingram's performance was terrible, averaging 36.3 minutes per game, only 14.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 turnovers, shooting only 34.5%+25%, a miserable true shooting rate of 45%, and an average net efficiency value of -14 per game.
There is no doubt that Ingram is the worst team leader of the 16 teams this year, and the Pelicans currently have a good roster of depth, size and defense at the front, and once approached the top four in the West in the regular season. But the four games in the playoffs lost by a total of 63 points, and they were beaten to a helpless position, largely because Ingram did not play a star role.
Judging from his performances in recent years, he is far from expectations, and if he continues to be in such a muddy state, it can basically be said that he has said goodbye to the road to stardom.
One statistic that's easy to overlook is that his attendance has been terrible, with the exception of 79 games in his rookie season, the 64 regular season games he has played in the past seven years in his eight years in the league.
His over-reliance on mid-range shooting, poor confrontation ability, lack of long-range projection, insufficient ability to control dribbling, and lack of organizational ability are also destined to his ceiling, which can be said to be far from the expectations of Durant Jr. when he first entered the league.
In the past 8 years, he has only been selected as an All-Star + 1 time as the league's most improved player, and he has not scored any other results, and even only led the team to play in the playoffs twice, only to fall in the first round twice.
This is also a portrayal of the Pelicans in recent years, I thought that the combination of "Little James" Zion + "Little Durant" Ingram could lead the team to rise, but it turned out to be a chicken feather, but the thick eyebrows and Holiday who were sent away have already won the championship.
Let's look back at the Lakers' trade back then, the Lakers traded 7 for 1, and Ingram was the main body of the trade to get thick eyebrows, and the result was that thick eyebrows brought the Lakers a championship in the first year of their arrival, while the Pelicans continued to languish, Ball and Hart have been sent away, and now even Ingram is ready to do so.
So the result is very obvious, the Lakers won, the Pelicans lost a mess, and many times what determines the success or failure of a team is the ability of management to operate.
For such an Ingram, it is really better to send him away as soon as possible than to spend a big contract at a premium, and considering the current brutal competition in the West, it is not impossible for the Pelicans to even completely tear down and rebuild.