With loud music blaring from nearby speakers and basketballs bouncing behind him, it’s sometimes difficult to even hear Brandon Ingram’s lowkey, heavy-bass voice when he’s interviewed inside the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on practice days. Following Monday’s 97-89 season-ending loss to Oklahoma City, however, no one needed to lean in close to understand Ingram’s message inside the Smoothie King Center. The eight-year NBA veteran forward may not have even needed a microphone as he delivered an animated response to what just took place, capturing the disappointment he felt. Over a roughly eight-month period, the 26-year-old went from a challenging stint with USA Basketball at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, to closing his fifth season in New Orleans with a knee injury that sidelined him, to struggling mightily in his second career NBA playoff trip. Ingram finished the Thunder series well below his statistical norms across the board (14.3 ppg, 35 percent from the field, 25 percent on threes), a factor in the Pelicans being swept 4-0.
“I’ll be honest,” Ingram said. “This was, from USA up to this season, probably the worst I’ve been in a New Orleans Pelicans uniform. I’m motivated by that. I can go back and blame coaches, I can blame everybody else but myself, but I’ve got to go look myself in the mirror and tell myself what I can do to really help this team, how can I help the coaches, and how do I get the fans in New Orleans to believe in us again? That’s my job, that’s my task. That’s what I’ll be thinking about over the summer. Come back (next season) and leave it all on the line. If I do that, and come up short, or if I win the whole thing, I’ll know I did everything I could to be who I want to be.”
Brandon Ingram | Pelicans vs. Thunder 2024 NBA Playoffs Game 4 Postgame
Over first three-fourths of the regular season, Ingram was at the top of the list of reasons behind why the Pelicans posted their best record in 15 years (49-33, tying the 2008-09 club). New Orleans came within a whisker of notching the second 50-win campaign in franchise history, dropping Game 82 on April 14 vs. the Lakers, a game for which Ingram returned from a 3.5-week absence due to a left knee bone contusion.
After averaging 20.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.7 assists, while playing in 63 of NOLA’s first 69 games, Ingram had a 12-game DNP stretch with the injury. The Pelicans endured a costly 1-5 homestand during that span, contributing to a fall in the Western Conference standings from contender for a top-four seed to ultimately needing to advance from the play-in tournament and landing the No. 8 seed in the playoffs. That meant a Round 1 date vs. top-seeded Oklahoma City, which effectively shut down the Pelicans’ offense and their top available scorers (Ingram and CJ McCollum; Zion Williamson was out with a hamstring injury).
During his seven total games back in uniform, Ingram didn’t look like he had the same explosiveness from earlier in 2023-24, including passing up opportunities in Monday’s loss to dribble by a defender on a fast break, or tentatively pivoting near the paint on a key fourth-quarter possession, then tossing a crosscourt feed to a teammate. Asked about the impact of the knee injury on his performance, Ingram declined to blame it.
“I played. I don’t think it’s a great time to make excuses about my physical appearance,” he said. “I played. I just came up short. I wasn’t able to catch a rhythm. Maybe it was due to my body. But I was out there, trying to play aggressive, trying to get my teammates involved and trying to be the best I could be.”
Ingram was outstanding in the team’s 2022 playoff series vs. Phoenix, averaging 27.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists, as New Orleans gave the No. 1 seed everything it could handle before losing 4-2. He wasn’t able to follow up that stellar performance two years later with something similar, a development he vows to use during his offseason workouts and preparation for 2024-25.
“Start working out and figure out everything I need to work on,” Ingram said of his plan. “Even coming back from injury, (to make sure) that I won’t have a playoff series like this. Every summer I’ve been motivated.
“What happened is going to fuel me to be better. I’ll always remember this moment. It can only make me better.”