Many Detroit Pistons fans were hoping Trajan Langdon would make a trade with his old team at the trade deadline last season and bring Brandon Ingram to Detroit.
It made sense in some ways, as Ingram would be a solid number two scoring option (something the Pistons hope they are getting when Jaden Ivey returns) and he came at a relatively low price.
Ingram also comes with plenty of red flags, including the fact that he wasn’t even healthy at the time. Toronto took the risk anyway and gave up two veterans and a first-round pick for Ingram, then rewarded him with a fat extension even though he has yet to play a minute for them.
The Raptors rolled the dice on a player with an iffy injury history, but there were other red flags that made the Pistons smartly stay away.
Trajan Langdon has a vision that Brandon Ingram doesn’t fit
We all know about BI’s injury history, but no one knows more about it than Trajan Langdon, who was GM for the Pelicans for much of Ingram’s career.
Langdon learned some painful lessons in New Orleans that he is already applying to the Pistons, namely that you shouldn’t stake the success of your team on guys who miss a lot of games.
Langdon had BI, Zion Williamson and Lonzo Ball at the same time so knows exactly how difficult it is to build a sustainable winner around injury-prone players.
Ingram is reportedly healthy now but doesn’t have a rich history of staying that way, so his contract could end up being an anchor around the Raptor’s neck at some point.
BI has only played 60 or more games four times in his career and the final year of his extension is a player option that will pay him $41 million, a price tag that could be steep if Ingram continues to miss a lot of games.
The Raptors already had a dubious contract in Immanuel Quickley, so if this Ingram deal doesn’t work out, they have a lot invested in just two players.
A healthy Ingram could push Toronto into playoff contention, so it was a calculated risk, but at over $40 million a season, it’s an expensive gamble the Pistons were smart to avoid.
There were also issues of fit for a ball-dominant wing whose team was actually better without him on the floor last season.
Trajan Langdon has to continue to find low-risk value, contracts (like Duncan Robinson) that have no long-term commitments and won’t sink the Pistons if they go wrong nor hamper their long-term financial flexibility.