With only one year left on his current contract, former All-Star forward Brandon Ingram would seem to be a logical trade candidate for the New Orleans Pelicans this offseason.
But it doesn’t appear the Houston Rockets are a suitor, and especially not if the deal requires promising young center Alperen Sengun.
Per Kelly Iko of The Athletic:
Rumors have swirled about the Pelicans dangling Ingram in trade talks and in one iteration, a hypothetical Ingram-for-Alperen Şengün swap was mentioned. But the Rockets have no interest, team sources said.
Sengun will be considerably more expensive once his second career contract kicks in with the 2025-26 NBA season. Thus, at a surface level, the financial concerns with Ingram could also apply to Sengun.
But at 21 years old, Sengun is five years younger than Ingram and could have more upside. He’s also a center and not a wing, where the Rockets are already well stocked with talented young players such as Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Cam Whitmore, and Tari Eason.
With a win-now emphasis after a much-improved 41-41 campaign, the Rockets are believed to be interested in exploring marquee trades. Iko previously reported that Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, should he want to leave the Cavaliers, would be of interest to Houston.
But Ingram isn’t quite to that All-NBA level of a player such as Mitchell. Thus, the incentive for the Rockets to dip into their young core to incentivize a trade appears to be substantially reduced.
Donovan Clingan is gaining momentum as the No. 1 prospect for the Houston Rockets — with Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard closely behind — ahead of next week’s draft, league sources tell @TheAthletic.
More from Draft Notebook 2.0: https://t.co/4D2wD89kSR
— Kelly Iko (@KellyIko) June 20, 2024
