The Los Angeles Clippers may be short on draft picks after the NBA’s punishment tied to the Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention scandal, but Brandon Ingram is not headed back out the door anytime soon.
That was the word from NBA insider Jake Fischer, who said on Bleacher Report that the Clippers have not shown any urgency to move Ingram after acquiring him in the pending Leonard deal with the Toronto Raptors.
“I don’t think that’s anything being discussed at this moment right now. Could they potentially do that somewhere this season or further down the line?
Certainly. But I’ve been given no indication that the Clippers are actively looking to move Brandon Ingram at this period.”
That matters because the Clippers’ stripped-down asset situation has naturally fueled talk of a bigger teardown. The league took away five first-round picks from 2029 through 2033, hit the team with a $30 million fine, and suspended Steve Ballmer for a year along with president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months. Those suspensions have also helped slow down the Leonard trade itself, since the Clippers are still operating through a temporary front office setup.
Even with the delay, the deal is still expected to get done. When it does, Leonard would head back to Toronto, while the Clippers would receive Ingram, Gradey Dick, first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, second-round picks in 2030 and 2033, and a 2027 first-round pick swap. There had been some chatter that Toronto might try to reshape the package because of the Clippers’ limited leverage, but the original framework still appears likely to stand.
And from the outside, it’s easy to see why people would start connecting the dots. Losing that much draft capital can push a team toward selling veteran pieces, and Ingram is exactly the kind of name that gets tossed around in those conversations. Darius Garland has also been mentioned as a possible trade candidate.
For now, though, Fischer says Ingram is not part of any immediate exit plan.
The forward is coming off a strong season with Toronto, one that earned him his second All-Star nod. He put up 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 47.7% from the field and 38.2% from beyond the arc. His year ended on a rough note, though, after a heel injury affected him in the Raptors’ first-round playoff loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Across five playoff games, Ingram averaged 12.0 points and shot 32.8% from the field before undergoing right heel surgery in May.
Still, when healthy, he gives the Clippers a real scoring punch as they begin moving away from the Leonard era. And there’s no rush to make another major decision. Los Angeles can first see how Ingram fits with the rest of the roster before deciding whether keeping him is the better long-term play or whether a trade later - perhaps at the deadline - makes more sense for rebuilding draft capital.
Fischer did leave open the possibility of a move later this season or further down the road. So while Ingram isn’t being shopped now, his future in Los Angeles is not locked in.
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