Raptors, Ingram hoping trade is mutually beneficial
Brandon Ingram made a positive first impression by joining the Raptors on the road Friday. While his debut with the team is still a ways away, it’s clear both sides want to make the most of this new partnership.
OKLAHOMA CITY — When Brandon Ingram will actually take the floor with the Toronto Raptors is still a big question mark, but he wasted little time in making his first appearance.
The nine-year veteran was initially expected to connect with his new team on Saturday in Houston but was present at shootaround Friday morning at the Paycom Center here in Oklahoma City where the Raptors play the Thunder Friday night.
It’s a small gesture but an encouraging sign. Part of the Raptors’ willingness to make the trade for the pending free agent was calculated based on his interest and enthusiasm for joining what is a team that’s still very much rebuilding and in a new city and a different country.
Ingram’s interest is present in his presence — he’s still recovering from a high ankle sprain suffered on Dec. 7 and it could be a month and likely more before he’s ready to take the court with his new team, so there wasn’t a particular rush for him to arrive and put on Raptors colours. That he was here first chance was noted positively.
Part of it was demonstrated when he waived his trade bonus to help facilitate the deal, costing him $2.1 million. Given that Ingram is earning $38.1 million this year in the last year of a five-year contract that paid him $158.3 million, it’s easy to say, ‘hey, he can afford it,’ but he didn’t have to do it. That he did made the cap gymnastics that much easier for the Raptors (even if it was the Pelicans who would have had to pay the bonus) and suggests Ingram is here by choice.
He said as much this morning before breaking away from a short scrum with a small group of reporters to dap it up with Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and the rest of his new teammates.
“I was happy about it, it’s a change for me, being in New Orleans five and a half years, it’s definitely a change for me,” he said in a volume just over a whisper that befits his general calmness. “A change of scenery can be sometimes good, and I thought it was a chance for me to get out of my element, do something different… it is definitely a fresh start. Some new faces, new talent around, and I’m excited to bring some new positive energy.”
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As a pending free agent Ingram, 27, had choices heading into the deadline. The Pelicans weren’t going to be able to get a return of any significance without having Ingram give some strong indication that his new team would be in a good position to sign him to a contract. According to sources, Ingram’s two preferred choices were Atlanta and Toronto. That gave the Pelicans something to work with and was a factor in the Raptors sending the Indiana Pacers’ top-four protected pick in 2026 and their own 2031 second-round pick to make the deal, though part of the price was that the Pelicans took on the remaining $13.5 million for 2025-26 on Kelly Olynyk’s contract along with Bruck Brown’s expiring contract.
But it’s not like the Raptors went into this blindly. Ingram’s been in the league for nine years, he was the No. 2 overall pick in 2016 and starred at Duke. What he’s capable of on the basketball court isn’t a secret. The only players averaging 25 points, five assists, five rebounds and shooting at least 37 per cent from three over the past six years are Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Ingram. Not to put Ingram in the class of two first-ballot hall-of-famers, but only to say the guy can ball.
But the Raptors were comfortable making the trade because of what they found doing their due diligence on Ingram as a person and what it will cost to sign him. On the contract front, he’s represented by Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who the Raptors have had a long-standing, positive relationship with going back to Cory Joseph’s stint with the team a decade ago. As a teammate and person, it’s worth noting Ingram was mentored growing up in Kinston, N.C. by former Raptors 905 head coach and current Golden State Warriors assistant Jerry Stackhouse. The Raptors reached out to their old employee to get a feel for Ingram. They also had the benefit of insights from Raptors assistant coach Mery Andrade, who was with the Pelicans organization for four years before joining Darko Rajakovic’s staff in Toronto last season. And they had the benefit of veteran Garrett Temple’s experience having shared a locker room with Ingram in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons in New Orleans.
“First and foremost, he’s a really great guy,” said Temple of his once and future teammate. “And you can’t say that about a lot of guys in the league, especially All-Star-level players. But BI is definitely that guy. He cares about playing basketball. He loves playing the game of basketball. In today’s league, that’s not easy to say about a lot of people that have been paid also.”
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There seems to be the potential for a fit on a personal level too. For all of Ingram’s talent, it comes packaged with a vibe that is decidedly chill. Teams need personalities of all types, but too many big ones can create its own set of problems. Ingram doesn’t seem to present that challenge.
“I think he’s not a domineering person. He’s very understated, easygoing, somebody that can just fit like a shoe. Not quiet but reserved,” Temple said. “It is very hard not to get along with Brandon Ingram. So that’s an easy personality to have to fit in and one that I think will meld pretty regularly with us. And then obviously our relationship, having been together for two years, hopefully will help that transition.”
Says Ingram, who acknowledged he hadn’t slept properly since Wednesday night as the trade was about to go down:
“I just want to have fun. I want to show my personality. I want to get outside of myself. Looking outside in, I know Scottie is seen like a goofball a little bit. So that’s a person that I want to be around. But also, I want to bring some accountability out there for myself and others.
“(But) I got a lot (of personality). Y’all will see it. I just haven’t slept a lot in the last two or three days. There’s new people, so I’m still feeling some people (out). But y’all will see it.”
He’s confident that he will fit in well playing alongside Barnes, another six-foot-eight wing who likes to handle the ball and score in the mid-range.
“I think it’s gonna be an easy transition because I’m unselfish, I want everybody to win and just try to get everything out of everybody,” Ingram said. ”Scottie is a really, really good player. And I know he’s going to make the game easier for me.”
Price — or value — factors into this as well, and not surprisingly the Raptors seem to have a pretty good handle on where negotiations on Ingram’s next contract might lead them. At the extreme end, Ingram is eligible for a five-year deal worth $269 million if he goes to free agency and re-signs with Toronto for his allowable maximum. If the decision is to extend his current deal — which the Raptors have the option of doing until June 30 — the number tops out at three years and $144 million.
“Brandon wants to be here. I think this was an intentional effort and decision by him (to be here), so we appreciate that,” said Raptors general manager Bobby Webster. “And, yeah, obviously we’ve been able to talk to his agent and representatives over the last 24 hours or so and so we’re comfortable with where we are.”
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Reading between the lines and having spoken with some people close to the situation, chances are Ingram’s next deal will more likely be an extension — so three years rather than five — and not necessarily for the full max, with the Raptors having the benefit of the free agent market being a tight one this coming summer.
(For more detail on the salary cap implications of the Raptors deadline moves, check Blake Murphy’s backgrounder here.)
But it was interesting that while Webster acknowledged re-signing Ingram and adding his salary to the roughly $118.4 million the Raptors have committed to Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl next season, he didn’t make it sound like the possibility of heading into the luxury tax was an apocalyptic fireball that has to be avoided at all costs. The luxury tax is projected to kick in at $187.9 million, leaving Toronto about $70 million to pay their remaining 11 players (including Ingram) without going into the penalty. So it will be tight, and it does open the possibility of having to make a trade, but again, Webster didn’t seem too stressed.
“I think we’ve always said, ‘We’re going into the luxury tax when we want to be competitive’. I think the one thing that’s changed maybe since ’17, ’18, ’19 is the teams going into the tax they can’t all feel like they’re contenders, right?” said Webster. “And so I think there’s a bit of a change here, which is ‘Are you going into the tax because you think you can win a title or are you going into the tax because you think you can make the playoffs or the second round’? I think that’s sort of the equilibrium and that’s the balance where we need to find but those are probably decisions for future seasons.”
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And the presence of Ingram now certainly doesn’t seem like it’s going to threaten the course the Raptors have chosen for this season, which is to draft as high as possible. There will be no rush to get Ingram back on the floor. Instead the time they have with him between now and the end of the season will be more about working to make sure that whatever deficiencies he might have that have contributed to him playing an average of 57 games per year over the previous seven seasons can be addressed with the Raptors medical staff.
There will be an emphasis on playing rookies Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle and Ulrich Chomche. Veterans will be rested. Meanwhile, the front office’s next task will be to continue to drill down into the 2025 draft class to make sure that wherever the Raptors end up picking they will be able to choose with confidence.
“Scouting these players for a number of years, I think we have identified this year’s draft as particularly strong at the top, but also throughout,” said Webster. “And so for us, that’s the mission No. 1 now is let’s go out and travel the world and figure out which of these guys (we want).
“It takes me back a little bit to the Tampa year when you start to identify Scottie around this time, how many difference makers do you feel are in the draft? But we feel confident. And obviously, the lottery balls and lottery gods will determine where we end up, but that’s our job to find the players.”
