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

It's tough because he didn't put up big numbers to start the season, and voters aren't gonna look at husband intangibles. Post-ASB his numbers are pretty dang good, but it might only be enough to get him 2nd team. Regardless, he's improved his game so noticeably, it's been great to watch. He's been so much more aggressive on offense, and he does other things that might not be apparent if you aren't watching the games, like tonight he made a handful of great passes to guys cutting to the basket that led to easy buckets. He has that natural feel for the game and very good basketball IQ.

 

Star.

Over the few weeks he's shown a consistency of both effort and effectiveness that none of our other kids have been able to do. Not only are his numbers improving, but we're more competitive when he's playing this way. I don't know if the resting helped him find another level of energy or if he finally caught up to the NBA speed, but he looks a completely different way. He's unrecognizable from even 2 months ago, let alone the start of the season.

I'm just about ready to put him in the "only trade for a young star" camp and honestly if Indiana asks for him for George, I'm hesitating. We may have found a young man capable of being what Paul George is right now for a fraction of the cost. This is the kind of kid though that a star could look at and say, "now maybe there's something there".

 

Agree with the consensus: BI is a stud.

He's looking like the Duke star a lot of us watched last season. He's simply figured out how to play his game at the NBA level.

He's doing an amazing job at getting to his spots in the mid-range game, and those 15-18 footers have been almost automatic for these past 2 months. He's also doing excellent work at using those long strides and finding the right angles to get to the rim consistently, and has been finishing so well around the hoop. Those two things probably feed into each other. Defender has to crowd him to contest that J, so he has more opportunities to blow by them for an easy hoop at the rim.

The natural filling out process along with some work in the gym is going to have him absorbing contact even better in the coming years. This BI is the guy I saw last year that I felt was the best player in college Bball last year. Can't wait to continue to watch him grow!

 

Hopefully we can use his contract to make salaries work in a trade for Paul Millsap.

 

Of course he does. Imagine him with Kobe's dedication to getting the shots up during the offseason.

 

Check this out:

Giannis (left) at 19 vs. Ingram at 19:
24.6 MPG 28.8
6.8 points 9.4
1.9 assists 2.1
4.4 rebounds 4.0
0.8 steals 0.6
0.8 blocks 0.4
41.4% FGs 40.2
34.7% 3pt 29.4
68.3% FT 62.1

Giannis at 20 vs. Ingram's last 17 games this season:
31.4 MPG 31.4
12.7 PPG 13.9
2.6 APG 2.6
6.7 RPG 3.8
0.9 SPG 1.2
1.0 BPG 0.5
49.1% FGs 48.3
15.9% 3pt 29.7
74.1% FT 57.1

Pretty darn similar. Not sure why Ingram can't post better numbers than Giannis at age 20, in nearly every category.