Blockbuster Trade Proposal Sends Brandon Ingram To Spurs, Jarrett Allen To Pelicans, Keldon Johnson To Cavaliers

One NBA analyst proposed a three-team trade idea between the New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report proposed the following mock trade:

Spurs Receive: Brandon Ingram and Dean Wade

Pelicans Receive: Jarrett Allen (cannot be traded till January 27, 2025), Caris LeVert, Julian Champagnie and a top-five-protected 2029 first-round pick (from San Antonio)

Cavaliers Receive: Keldon Johnson, Zach Collins, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and a top-five-protected 2029 first-round pick (from New Orleans)

Ingram averaged 20.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks for the Pelicans last season while shooting 49.2% from the field, 35.5% from beyond the arc and 80.1% from the free-throw line. The forward will make $36 million next season in the final year of his contract. 

“Ingram’s mid-range game has added to the congestion in an offense that includes Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum (though the latter has done a good job of upping his three-point volume in recent years),” Bailey wrote in his NBA trade proposal. “In San Antonio, playing alongside a generational talent who’ll force bigs outside the three-point line with his own range, Ingram’s game would be more dangerous.”

Allen averaged 16.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.7 steals and 1.1 blocks in 2023-24 for the Cavaliers while shooting 63.4% from the field and 74.2% from the free-throw line. He’ll make $20 million next season. 

The Cavaliers can trade Allen after January 31, 2025. The center signed a three-year, $90 million extension with Cleveland this offseason. 

“New Orleans would still have the ability to play faster, more positionless lineups, but it would also have a legitimate defensive anchor in Allen,” Bailey wrote in his NBA trade proposal. “All of that is worth losing an unhappy All-Star and a pick, especially since the incoming pick from San Antonio makes that part of the deal a net neutral.”

For the Spurs last season, Johnson averaged 15.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.3 blocks while shooting 45.4% from the field, 34.6% from beyond the arc and 79.2% from the free-throw line. He’ll make $19 million next season. 

“Re-routing Ingram to San Antonio and taking on the younger Johnson, who’s a bit more likely to catch-and-shoot or attack closeouts than hold the ball like Ingram, makes some sense on its own,” Bailey wrote in his NBA trade proposal.