Miami Heat: Why a trade for Brandon Ingram is not worth it

Let’s take a look at why Brandon Ingram’s contract is too expensive for Miami Heat

Ingram is on a large salary for the foreseeable future, as he is entering the second year of a five-year, $158.3 million contract. Ingram’s salary is way too big for him to be a floor spacer.

More importantly, Five Reasons Sports suggested that Robinson and Tyler Herro would be included in the trade as New Orleans wants shooters. Therefore, if the Miami Heat wants to justify acquiring Ingram, they will have to accentuate other parts of his game.

For instance, Ingram loves to have the ball in his hands, as pick and rolls have accounted for 26.1 percent of his possessions, averaging 4.9 per game since 2016. He has shot 42.3 percent from the field on these possessions in 3.7 attempts per game, creating 4.2 points per game: 23.6 percent of his scoring output.

Unfortunately, the Heat will have a difficult time allowing him to step into the ball handler role due to the weaknesses of their main star, Butler. Butler shot 37.5 percent from the restricted area until 2019 on 9.7 attempts per game.

Butler has seen a significant decline in his shooting since 2019 as he converted 34.5 percent outside of the restricted area on 8.1 attempts. Consequently, if the Heat gives Ingram the ball, defenders will leave Butler wide open when he’s off the ball because they know he struggles to shoot the basketball.

Therefore, it would increase the likelihood that Ingram will see an uptick in his contested shot attempts. A hypothetical solution to this issue is to stagger Butler and Ingram for most of the game.