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

Counterintuitive, but might be the answer actually.

 

I really like that idea with Ingram coming off the bench. I also like the idea of bringing Randle back to the starting line up. Larry Nance Jr lack of aggressiveness in the offensive end is killing us out there.

Zo
KCP
Kuz
Randle
Lopez

 

How about we move kcp to the bench

Zo/jc
Ingram/kcp
Kuz/brewer
Randle/nance
Brook/bogut

We would have height and offense, also lethal versatility

 

No outside shooting in that line up. We bench Ingram to learn from Deng, maximizing the corpse mentorship abilities. BI is a back up at this point because of his inconsistency.

 

Actually fellas it needs to be said...no matter what starting lineup we put out there, the majority of the time, their talent will be better than ours. Hopefully that changes next summer, but for right now, most teams have us beat on the talent/experience level. So no matter who we throw out there, our 2nd unit is most likely not going to be protecting a lead when our starters sit.

That being said, I understand that the current group is getting in too much of a hole. I see it as chemistry for now cause literally all of them are playing with each other for the first time and in training camp/preseason most didn't even get much burn playing with each other due to Zo and BLo healing up their wounds.

But if a lineup change must be made, its Zo, KCP, BI, Kuz, Lopez as starters only cause Kuz has said he prefers to play the 4.

You come off the bench with Clarkson, Hart, Brew, Randle, Nance as our small ball speed up offense. Don't get me wrong our starting unit will want to play uptempo as well, but with BLo out there, we're still going to have to slow it down from time to time.

Nance is the fastest guy on the team (wink wink), Randle is a runaway locomotive, Brew and Hart excel in the uptempo game and are great defenders on the wing and Clarkson loves to go full throttle too. Bogut only comes in for circumstantial scenarios or to matchup with the opposing 2nd teams' lineup in case they decide to play big.

If you think about it, traditionally the strong half-court bruisers will be in the starting lineup (hopefully Kuz is up to the challenge, but its hard to doubt this kid), so most of their smaller weaker players will be coming off the bench making up the 2nd unit. Our small ball lineup would better match up with the opposing 2nd units with Randle/JC being our go to guys in case we need to slow it down or establish the post game in a half-court set.

 

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So ..... if Randle's the odd guy out then get his value up to trade at the deadline and move Ingram back into the starting lineup after that and after hopefully he gets his s*** together with better playing within the offense and not making things so hard on himself offensively. Move Kuz then to the 4 and if he's being outmuscled some nights bring Nance in quicker and let Kuz play the 3 in spurts that game as well when BI rests. I don't buy Nance is less strong this year just because he got his conditioning to a new level. He looks bigger up top and I would bet his is stronger this year as well.

 

As a guy who has always felt like we shouldn't have labeled Ingram as untouchable, I honestly don't think he should come off the bench. Wins are going to be hard to come by regardless. I agree with letting him go ahead and play and get used to a role as a starter.

It's questionable if Randle is part of our future but we know Ingram is for at least few more seasons. Let him continue to start with Zo and Kuzma so that group can grow together.

If nothing else, we should have a much clearer view of what he is and isn't after a solid year of starting with Lonzo.

 

disagree, lack of wins dont mean we should allow him to do whatever it is he's doing. He has become a ball stopper and now his D has fallen off a cliff too. Hes one of the bigger culprits who "ball watch" and consistently leaving his man for open 3's or back doors. If he comes off the bench, maybe his ISO ways might work better against inferior competition. If he doesn't learn how to play catch shoot gm and or stop his ISO ways he's not gona benefit from playing with the starters and ball.

 

His skills won't improve on the bench. No he's not playing great overall, but he has a higher ceiling and much more potential than Nance or Randle. He's the future. Let him play.

 

i was also on the "wtf untouchable?" list during the summer, but that's over now...

that said, before benching, i'd just like the coaching staff to reverse course and ask him to play within the team framework, pick his spots offensively, and focus on defending. if he won't listen, then you bench him like you did randle.

 

what he is he gona develope into if he keeps this ISO garbage? An inefficient younger Melo?

 

You think he is the future? I don't know if the current Front Office is in the business of developing talent.

I think they're in the business of winning now. They might give him this season; but if He doesn't the improvement they want, I think they ship him out.

 

but again, not to belabor: they could have shipped him out for a legit star this summer, but didn't. i think they don't know what they're doing, and that the plan changes with the wind.