Brandon Ingram for Deandre Ayton

The New Orleans Pelicans entering the season with a disgruntled, unextended Brandon Ingram and without a starting-caliber center made them a pretty obvious trade candidate from the jump, but an avalanche of injuries may have changed that.

With Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy all missing significant time, New Orleans has cratered in the standings. Being ultra conservative with those injury timelines and staying near the top of the draft lottery may make sense.

But if the big names start to filter back into the rotation when the play-in tournament is still within reach, the Pelicans might be wise to consider a roster-balancing move that exchanges Ingram for a 5.

And Deandre Ayton is perhaps the most obvious candidate for such a move.

Much has been made of Ayton’s lack of range and ability to get to the line. He doesn’t have much defensive versatility either. But he’s a double-double machine who’d at least be more of a deterrent inside than Daniel Theis or the center version of Zion.

And he wouldn’t preclude New Orleans from rolling out the small-ball lineups that often make it more difficult to guard. It’s just nice to be able to go with a more traditional look.

For the Blazers, Ingram’s $36 million salary is right around Ayton’s $34 million, but he’s on an expiring deal, while Ayton is under contract through 2025-26. He doesn’t make a ton of sense for a rebuilding team, but Portland can easily just let him walk next summer and have some extra flexibility without that final year of Ayton on the books.

Is that alone worth moving Ayton? Portland might insist on getting a pick, but the answer to that question could honestly be yes.

He too doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Blazers, especially with Donovan Clingan already looking like a starter-quality rim protector.

Simply unloading him probably makes as much sense as hanging on for the rest of this season and the next one.