Brandon Ingram Discussion: He Is Who We Thought He Could Be

I agree, rest him. Luke yesterday in practice even acknowledged its not really even an injury. Knee has a little tendinitis, that's it. They just don't see the point of risking anything. Luke said if we were fighting for the playoffs or this was a playoff game Ingram would be playing.

Nothing more to see here.

 

I thought he had a very solid rookie year. He played way more minutes than I expected him to with that frame, and he showed steady and clear improvement as the season went on. He showed the ability to play multiple possessions, showed flashes of real defensive potential, even had some ball handling duties and showed off some playmaking skills. I think it was a very solid rookie year, and I think the coaches had to be happy with what they saw. He's a team first guy, he often makes the correct basketball play and not the selfish play, yet showed more aggression on offense the 2nd half of the season. Again, with that frame, I didn't expect him to play as much as he did, I expected him to get pushed around and struggle more, but he didn't, and he stayed relatively healthy. All in all, very good first season.

 

His post ASB play was almost everything we could have hoped for. No reason he can't be a 15-5-2-1-1 player next season. And if he can hit his outside shots it's on.

 

This times a billion.

There's a national narrative that Ingram is a bust already or is disappointing, but anybody who watches this kid should absolutely see the vast potential in him. He may not be your superstar alpha that the Lakers are dreaming of, but he'll make a tremendous beta. I have no doubt about that. He has the best head on his shoulders of any of our kids, grew the most consistently, and flashed (in my opinion) the most potential because of his ability on both ends of the court.

 

Is this guy credible? First time I've heard this

 

I remember before the draft everyone, including the "experts" on the picture tube were saying he would take a while to develop, but in a few years he'd be special. Then at some point between the draft and the start of the season, everyone forgot about that and expected 22-8-5 and elite defense. The only thing that bothered me a bit was he was touted as a better shooter than he showed early in the season. I expected him to come out of the gate at least hitting the long range shots a bit better, but perhaps the strength issues affected that too.

 

He wasn't what I expected and that's okay. I thought his outside shot would be a lot better. I didn't know he'd be hesitant. I thought he'd get abused on defense. I was wrong on all 3.

He improved a lot as the season went on. Considering he was in high school 2 years ago, I think his future is bright. It would be really difficult for me to sign off on trading him.