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

Man, they are talking way too much about BI being the next great player. He's had 2 months of average basketball. They need to chill on the rhetoric and let him do his thing before they start calling him a great player.

 

But he scored 26 in one Summer League game. And then cramps. Are you saying that's not enough to project an All Star season?

 

No one is hurting anything by talking. If he is going to be a star in this league he's going to have to deal with a lot worse things than people publicly pumping him up. I think it's intentional and it's all good. Same with Lonzo. These guys need to be able to use pressure and feed off it. Kid gloves are off.

 

I made a similar point over the summer and got killed for it so be careful here. Lol

But again, I don’t think they have much choice. They went all in on him and we’re definitely going to need him to be great to have success this year.

 

my main concern is fan backlash. the fanbase turned on the other young players before their second year was over because they weren't stars yet. now we're explicitly stating that stardom is going to happen now. we can't have forgotten that 8 months ago, ingram was one of the most statistically disappointing draft picks ever.

these facts are getting labeled as hate, but i like ingram. i just think the quickness to anoint heroes and zeroes gets a little tiresome.

probably the worst thing has been our own FO placing numbers on what success means. 20ppg is a lot. furthermore, ingram's future as a star, if he's going to be one, isn't tied solely to his scoring.

ingram's good. i thought the brief look in summer league was encouraging, but it's best to tap the brakes a bit on his being a budding superstar or franchise cornerstone.

 

I 100% agree with this but it doesn’t look like the front office is taking that approach. We can only hope Ingram really is ready for the big time.

 

Ingram is humble and puts in the work. And it's other people telling us about it, not him.

With some others, they are posting their own workout vids with comments like "let them sleep" and spending more time on celebratory moves than actual practice.

Much more grace will be extended to Ingram than other prior youngsters.

 

so it's about personal liking?

i just wonder how much personal liking is tied to team/player success over time, and how today's celebrated humility can become tomorrow's a****** hermit/non-vocal non-leader.

people (not me, mind you) trumpted russell's brashness when he was drafted and rejoiced in his fun victory dances. now they're hallmarks of his fatal dysfunction. this occurred in less than 18 months.

 

Nance is liked and marginally productive. Works hard, great effort, well spoken, easy to like.

Randle has lapses of effort, and not in great shape in the past, and it affected how fans viewed him. It plays a role for sure.

Not all fans are the same, but I'd rather see the result of the hard work you put in rather than have you tell me about it.

So to me, Ingram > Russell in the likability department. Much easier to root for. And if they had the same size, same talent, same stats, and I could only keep one?

It would be an easy choice for me.

 

Likability is a huge factor. I wanted Russell to succeed and I was in his corner throughout his tenure as a Laker, but I always secretly thought he was a tool. I just hoped his talent would outweigh his immaturity.

At first I was disappointed in the trade, but not nearly as much as I expected. I want him to be successful, but I agree with what has been said by others recently: this team needed a culture change and a big part of that was DLo.

 

but they don't. russell was more productive as a rookie. most statheads think he's underrated by fans and the media. his talent is unquestionable, and he's larger for his position than ingram is for his position.

i didn't secretly think he was a tool. i said it all the time. i'm glad i don't have to root for him anymore, but there's a difference between honestly evaluating impact and hoping for success or liking someone. bob sacre was easy to root for.

but to get back to the point: the reason some of us get a bit antsy with all the lofty projections for ingram is that we've witnessed, very recently, how violation of those expectations turns the tenor of the conversation around here.

he's 19. the team is likely to be bad again. i just hope we don't pin it on ingram like we did with russell.

 

Getting killed for stating the obvious is dumb. No need to continue to live in fantasy land. The only thing we know right now is Lonzo will drastically improve the team because his game is specific in getting other players involved. Not many basketball players can do that in the NBA or give s*** too.

 

Maybe, but talk is cheap. I just hope it isn't hype. Not too concerned with BI's feelings on the matter. I just dont want to be fed a pile of cow manure when I'm suppose to get a nice ribeye. No one wants BI to be a star more than I do, but let it happened. No sense in talking about it.

 

Nance is this teams version of Shannon Brown. More talent but his current impact is more excitement than substance. Plus his body may not let him have a long career. He is very entertaining and that helps a little when you were watching 20 wins a year the last few years.

Randle is a bust unless he surprises the heck out of me. I have watched a lot of basketball in my time. 26 years to be exact on when I was old enough to pay attention and understand. Randle can do all the Mr Olympia workouts he can, and like Shaq said one time, you can put a guy on me with 3 percent body fat and eats salads all day and I'll still bust his a**. Well, Randle will have to play every game with complete focus. I have only seen him do it once a week for the last two years. So we will see.

Ingram has the mindset and physical ability to be great. We still have to see it and it won't be this year. Sorry. He isn't gonna be a star in year 2. More than likely year 3 and 4 and a lot of that will be due to Lonzo being able to create for the team and allow him to get the ball in perfect spots during each and every game.

 

Ingram is completely different than Randle, Clarkson and D'Angelo. Randle and Clarkson have a massive BBIQ deficiency that will never change. Randle is also very lazy. I loathe lazy players more than untalented players. Clarkson is a 2nd rounder, he's outplayed his status so it's like, whatever with him. Randle and DLo on the other hand were lottery picks who have done nothing to prove they deserve to be. So they will have to make a major jump or they are busts.

 

randle and russell both outperformed their draft position thus far, if we're using history as a guide. that was the argument made for clarkson's inoffensiveness to ox.

ironically, the only one who hasn't is ingram. will that change, i think and hope so. but i can't share the certainty and worry about how it might impact the small amount of time i spend here.

 

Trying to let the Russell stuff be but you guys keep dragging me back in....lol.


Russell's fate was sealed the moment he walked through the door because his name wasn't Okafor. No matter how clear it was that passing on Okafor was the right call he was in a hole with the fanbase that only really a Lebron caliber guy who just hit the ground running could dig their way out of. Add to that the clashing with Byron, maturity issues, the video incident, and just a flat out weird personality at times and his fate was pretty much sealed.

The advantage Ingram has is that he's the guy people wanted and it makes all the difference in the world. The benefit of the doubt he gets despite the numbers is pretty obvious. I think he will be good, but I'm not sure of his ceiling.

The likability factor is another reason (a small one as I really like Ball) I was glad we went with Ball in the draft instead of one of the other guys. Despite what people say, any other guy would have started in the hole similar to Russell and I think the fans would have been on them from the start. It helps that they would have Walton instead of Byron but still.

Bottom line to me is that Ingram has a ton of leeway because people like him. It is what it is and there's probably a lesson to be learned here for other guys coming into the league.