According to Shamit Dua, the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans were deep in trade talks for Brandon Ingram. But, according to Dua, Ingram ended those talks because of a lack of interest in signing with the Jazz.

From Dua’s substack:

Multiple league sources have relayed to me that the Pelicans and Jazz were deep in talks which were shut down by Ingram’s lack of desire to re-sign in Salt Lake City.

Dua goes on to give a little more context:

This is important info, because it highlights that money is not presumably everything for Ingram. I do think it was in his best interests to just take the money, however. The cap landscape for next summer is a harsh one. Only the Brooklyn Nets project to have signficiant cap space, which will undoubtedly limit the number of Ingram suitors at the dollar figure he is seeking.

Nonetheless, either Ingram just doesn’t want any part of Utah, or feels he can get comparable money in a better situation. This part remains to be seen and is what Klutch will be asked to tackle.

For Jazz fans, this brings about a variety of emotions, the first being a sigh of relief. For the first time, the Utah Jazz are going all-in on a strategy to get stars in the draft. The only way for Utah to find a superstar cornerstone player is by winning the lottery, something Utah is giving itself the chance to do. Brandon Ingram would have successfully made the Jazz into a mid-level, underperforming team in the playoffs. That’s the thing the Jazz do every season. Now, the Jazz have a chance to do things the right way. Thank you, Brandon Ingram.

The second emotion is: What the heck, Brandon Ingram!? You don’t like fry sauce? You don’t like beautiful scenery? Don’t you like a grid system that makes it easy to make it anywhere in the city? Okay, that’s not the best reason to play somewhere, but in terms of basketball situation, Ingram would have been a featured player with the Jazz. There’s no way to know how much Utah even wanted to do this, but it certainly would have given Ingram the keys to the castle with this team. Maybe Ingram didn’t want that and instead wants to be on a team where he’s the second or third option. Or he might simply have not wanted to be in Utah. Either way, it’s clear that Utah was as active in the offseason as they said they were. The tanking season almost didn’t happen for multiple reasons.