They don't want you, but they can only rely on you

The Pelican team may really have to look at feng shui. From the day the opening match began, they didn't go well.

In the opening game, new recruit Dejounte Murray had a quasi-triple-double of 14 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists in his debut, leading the team to a big victory over the Bulls. However, Murray suffered a fracture in his left hand in the distal section and was confirmed to be out for more than a month after surgery.

Zion also joked to CJ before that he could finally play with a real point guard. However, soon the Pelicans' possession was back in CJ's hands, but CJ didn't last long. After the first four games, the Pelicans announced that CJ would be out for 2-3 weeks due to a right adductor strain.

Also missing is the team's defensive big man Herbert Jones, who will be sidelined for 2-4 weeks with a right shoulder strain and a partial rotator cuff tear. Murphy, who signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the team in the offseason, strained his hamstring before the season even began, and now he hasn't played a game.

The Pelicans' schedule was supposed to be the easiest in the league, with two games against the Trail Blazers and two games against the Warriors without Curry after the Bulls in the opener. However, the two Trail Blazers won one win and one loss, and the game they won relied on Ingram's quasi-stunner. As for the two games against Wukuyong, it was even more surprising, losing both games.

Before today's game, Zion withdrew from the game again due to hamstring tension. So among the Pelicans' top six payrolls this season, only Ingram can play, and he takes a group of rookies and base-salary players to play against the Hawks.

In the final game, Ingram had 32 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 6 turnovers, shooting 12-of-19 from the field and 4-of-8 from three-point range. Despite the poor assist-to-turnover ratio, Ingram is in a similar predicament to Harden. But everyone knows that you can play the whole team alone, and all the defensive attention is on you, so the error rate is naturally high.

Last season's Pelicans were injured alternately by Zion and Ingram, and the full roster basically didn't play a few games, stumbling into the playoffs. This season has been even more excessive, with one of the team's main players injured one after another, and now only Ingram remains.

And we all know that Ingram and the Pelicans experienced a bloody plot of relationship gradually breaking down in the offseason, Ingram wanted to get a contract extension with a maximum salary this year, but the Pelicans clutched their pockets so hard that they even thought about trading him.

In the plan to trade to Murray, Ingram's name must be among them. It's just that the Hawks ended up with offers like Daniels, Nance Jr. and two first-rounders, because the Hawks didn't want to pick up Ingram's contract extension mess either.

For a player like Ingram, giving him a maximum salary will definitely be at a premium, but he will definitely not be satisfied if he doesn't give him a maximum salary. If it had been two years ago, the Pelicans might have gritted their teeth and given it, after all, at that time, the team still had expectations for a combination like Ingram + Zion.

What now? The team has never been able to go further, with good and bad regular seasons and miserable playoffs. Fat Tiger hasn't been able to make his first playoff game until now, and Ingram was a mess in the playoffs last season. Zion's contract and potential are there, and if you want to break the game, you can only start with Yingge, whose contract is about to expire.

It's just that an offseason price was asked, and Ingram still couldn't trade it. Ingram simply didn't attend the team's offseason personal training camp, and what's even funnier was that the Pelicans originally thought Yingge would attend.

The current situation is that the people that the Pelicans originally fancied fell one by one, and the people who they originally wanted the least became the only pillars of the team that could still stand. So far this season, Ingram has averaged 24.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, shooting 50% from the field and 42.2% from three-point range.

If it goes on like this, the best outcome is probably that Yingge's performance is favored by a certain team, and the Pelicans can also get some chips. But for the Pelicans, if Yingge is really gone, who will be the next person to take the blame?