Brandon Ingram and New Orleans Pelicans agree to up to 5-year extension

New Orleans Pelicans All-Star forward Brandon Ingram has agreed to a five-year maximum contract extension of $ 158 million, his agents Jeff Schwartz and Jordan Gertler of Excel Sports told Adrian Wojnarowski of ‘ESPN.

Ingram thrived last season in New Orleans after joining the trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ingram, 23, set career highs averaging 23.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. He became an All-Star for the first time and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player.

A key to Ingram’s development has been improving his 3-point shooting. In three seasons with the Lakers, Ingram shot 32.9 percent from depth, scoring 127 3-pointers while attempting two per game. In his first season in New Orleans, Ingram had 6.2 3-point attempts per game, toppling them at a rate of 39.1%. He made 150 in 62 games, eclipsing his previous career tally.

Ingram was eligible to sign an overtime with the Pelicans before last season, but the two teams couldn’t come to an agreement. At the time, Ingram hadn’t played a game since a deep vein thrombosis in his arm had prematurely ended his 2018-19 season.

“They wanted to see how I recovered,” Ingram told ESPN in January. “This is the message I received. There was nothing I could do but respect it.”

When Ingram last spoke to reporters in August, after the Pelicans were knocked out of the playoffs in the Orlando bubble, he called New Orleans the “first choice” before free agency.

“It’s definitely a special place with a lot of really, really good people and a lot of genuine people so I appreciate where I am,” Ingram said.

New Orleans are set to host center Steven Adams and point guard Eric Bledsoe in a four-team contract and have selected Alabama point guard Kira Lewis 13th overall in Wednesday’s NBA Draft. Afterwards, David Griffin, executive vice president of basketball operations for the Pelicans, said the team was not done moving.

“From a big picture perspective, I would tell you there’s a long way to go,” Griffin said Wednesday night. “Obviously, with free will starting that fast, we have a few goals in mind and we have other business conversations going on as well. So there’s a lot going on at the same time.”