Fantasy Basketball Trade Thought: Should You Trade For/Away Pelicans' Brandon Ingram?

It’s time for another fantasy basketball trade story. Brandon Ingram is a name that appears a couple times inside the popular trades portion of the FantasySP Fantasy Basketball Trade Analyzer, so we’ll focus on him today.

We’ll take a look at what Ingram has done this season, compare his numbers to the other players part of one-for-one trades with Ingram and then make a decision on each deal, with help from the trade analyzer. Let’s get to it!

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Ingram’s Season

Ingram has played in 55 games for the New Orleans Pelicans so far for the 2023-24 season. 

He’s averaging 21.9 points, 5 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks across 33.3 minutes played. Ingram is shooting 49.1% from the floor, 36.1% from 3-point land and 80.4% from the free-throw line.

Ingram has scored in double figures in all but three games this season. He’s gone over 20 points on 32 occasions, with 10 games over 30 points. He’s had five or more rebounds on 29 occasions, while finishing with five or more assists on 43 occasions. Ingram has a steal in 29 games and a block in 22 contests.

The 26-year-old forward has three double-doubles and one triple-double to his name.

All those numbers add up to a 34.41 player rating on the FantasySP Trade Value Chart, which has him 25th in the entire NBA. That’s a great mark, especially considering Ingram’s Average Draft Position was 42.09.

Popular Trades

Ingram is part of one-for-one trades with CJ McCollum and Myles Turner. McCollum sits 59th on the FSP Trade Value Charts with a rating of 27.75, while Turner sits 64th with a 27.2 rating.

McCollum averages 18.8 points, 4.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 0.8 blocks across 31.6 minutes in the 45 games he’s played for the Pelicans this season. He’s shooting 45.8% overall, 42.5% from 3-point land and 79.4% from the free-throw line.

McCollum has scored in double figures in all but four games, going over 20 points on 17 occasions and over 30 points three times. He’s grabbed five or more rebounds on 20 occasions, had a steal in 31 games and a block in 26 contests. McCollum has one double-double this season.

Turner is averaging 17.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, 1.3 assists and 0.6 steals across 27.3 minutes in his 58 games played. He’s shooting 52.3% overall, 33.5% from deep and 78.8% from the line.

Turner has scored in double figures in all but four games, going over 20 points on 21 occasions and over 30 points once. He’s scored five or more rebounds in 47 games and has 14 double-doubles to his name. Turner has under five assists in every game, with a steal in 27 contests and a block in 46 games.

Trade Breakdowns with Help from Analyzer

If you’ve read a few of my other fantasy basketball trade stories, or are familiar with the FSP Trade Analyzer, you know the analyzer works off the player ratings when it comes to comparing players. So because Ingram has a better rating than McCollum and Turner, you should know his side of the deal comes out ahead in each case.

Ingram is seven-plus points clear of Turner, while being closer to 6 1/2 points ahead of McCollum.

I think the trade is closer than the point differential makes it appear, but I also am not accepting this deal if I’m getting Turner or McCollum in the deal. I’d definitely accept if I was offered Ingram for one of those two players.

To even these trades up, you are probably going to need to expand the deal to include two players on each side, simply because there aren’t a lot of players with ratings around six or seven that are very appealing outside of deep leagues and dynasties.

Since all three of these players are at different positions, the additional players in the deal could make it so no team loses a bunch of value at a single position. The better second player in the deal should be attached to the McCollum and Turner side of things to even things up.

What I'd try to do in a one-for-one deal involving Ingram is find a player closer to him in the ratings. De'Aaron Fox, James Harden, Tyrese Haliburton, Rudy Gobert, DeMar DeRozan, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Victor Wembanyama and Pascal Siakam all are within a point of Ingram at this point.

Happy trading!