When you’re trying to rebuild a roster, but many of your future draft picks have already been traded, creativity is critical. For Brooklyn’s front office earlier this decade, that meant identifying young players with potential on other NBA rosters, in the hopes of prying them loose via trade. One of the names at the top of the Nets’ and assistant general manager Trajan Langdon’s most-wanted list was Brandon Ingram.
It ended up requiring an address change for Langdon from the East Coast to the Gulf Coast – as well as a blockbuster trade with the Lakers – but in mid-June, Langdon finally landed the fellow Duke University product.