New Orleans Pelicans Star Inside Top 40 NBA Players Entering New Season

The New Orleans Pelicans have been in this situation before.

It is not the first time that Brandon Ingram was in need of a new contract or he would enter free agency after the season was over.

However, it is the first time that Ingram will enter unrestricted free agency if the Pelicans do not extend him or trade him ahead of the 2024-25 NBA Trade Deadline.

But that is a problem for another day.

Right now, New Orleans is preparing to begin their 2024-25 campaign in less than a week with the roster that they have crafted, a roster that still includes Ingram.

Ingram has been a big part of the Pelicans' success through the years and looks to be yet again while he is still with the team.

He has been so good, that ESPN has ranked him 40th in their top 100 NBA players list entering the 2024-25 season.

"The Dejounte Murray addition provides another attacking threat along with Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum," writes Michael Wright of ESPN, "which should only improve Ingram's prospects for increased production."

While adding Dejounte Murray to the roster does provide another attacking threat, it also gives Ingram more leeway to focus on scoring himself than he has had in years.

Adding Murray gives New Orleans a true point guard capable of facilitating an offense, something that they have not had since Lonzo Ball in the 2020-21 campaign.

Now, Ingram can focus on creating space between himself and the defense, opening more opportunities for him to drive to the basket or pull up from beyond the arc and sink threes with ease.

The last time the Pelicans had a true point guard, Ingram scored 23.8 points on 46.6 percent shooting across 34.3 minutes in 61 games.

This time, with Ingram being even more experienced, having a higher-caliber facilitator on the offense, and being in a contract year, we could see the forward competing for an MVP deep into the year.

In his last contract year, 2019-20, Ingram scored 23.8 points on 46.3 percent shooting across 33.9 minutes in 62 games at 22 years old.

Entering his age-27 season, he has many more weapons around him that can draw a defense away, leaving him with more scoring opportunities than he saw then.

It is a promising position that New Orleans finds itself in.

After finishing the 2023-24 season with a 49-33 record, they have more than an outside opportunity to improve upon that this year.

Brandon Ingram, a top-40 NBA player entering the season, will be a big part of the team's march toward doing just that.