What’s next for Brandon Ingram?
He finally did it. The King his taken his throne to one of the homes he owns in Los Angeles, taken his talents to Venice Beach and spurred as many speculative endorsement opportunities as clichéd jokes surrounding his apparent dropping of pretenses against the era-defining Golden State Warriors in favor of a comfortable ride off into the sunset. At his age, still performing at the level of an MVP, Lakers LeBron James is set to astound us in new and exciting ways, all of which major networks will no longer have to go out of their way to televise.
Around him, a questionable-at-best supporting cast has turned into a downright carnival – as is often the case when LeBron comes to town. The roster Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have assembled since LeBron committed to the Lakers is something the likes of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, James Jones and Boobie Gibson would all collectively sneeze at.
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I mean, okay, let’s just roll through some of this right now, as is currently constructed — LeBron, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, Mo Wagner, Luol Deng, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lance Stephenson and Rajon Rondo. Setting aside Kuzma’s sartorial acumen, Lonzo’s preternatural passing ability and Rondo’s perpetual rage with his teammates over basketball IQ, we’re still left with, of all things, LANCE STEPHENSON. It strikes a jazz chord that would raise Miles Davis’ eyebrow when you hear that LeBron legitimately wanted one of his foremost detractors by his side.
All of that – and there are several bushels’ worth of that involved there – aside, there remains the youth. Wagner stands to prosper as no first round pick likely should under LeBron’s purview, and Kuzma’s flashes of excellence may reach a standard of consistency akin to his collection of fur coats. It’ll be a miracle of not-insignificant proportions if LeBron doesn’t have Lonzo Ball traded strictly due to LaVar Ball’s world-class bloviating.
With Ingram, though, there is a chance of something truly special, the likes of which James has only encountered in passing with Kyrie Irving in his entire career. That combination helped yield a championship, and Irving is half a foot shorter than Ingram on a good day.
Through Ingram’s two seasons in the NBA, he’s already showing signs of drastic improvement. His awakening from a catatonic state in the post-Kobe Lakers lineups that largely emphasized good shots over actual makes manifested itself last year, when he nearly doubled his scoring and assist averages while maintaining a solid rebounding regimen on both ends of the floor.
Ingram’s fit alongside LeBron, which ESPN’s Zach Lowe detailed briefly here, may end up being the closest we ever get to a James-Durant pairing outside of Team USA competition, should Ingram ever get anywhere near the lofty heights of one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. If he shoots for the moon and misses, it’s ultimately fine if he lands somewhere in the thermosphere, orbiting a doomed rock floating as effortlessly into space as one of his midrange pullups.
The San Antonio Spurs have made a cottage industry out of the unfashionable midrange jumper, and Ingram’s got a slick, Spurs-like floater, to boot. One can imagine Luke Walton, and, by extension, LeBron, will be able to live with a 40-percent-ish 3-point shooter who only takes one out of every five of his shots from distance.
He’s rounding into an efficient scorer, and his play is so, for lack of a less-buzz wordy term, natural that it does not figure to be a problem, particularly alongside perhaps the greatest passer in the history of professional basketball. LeBron will find Ingram; it’s up to him to knock down the open jumper, just like Kyle Korver, Kyrie and Mike Miller before him.
One thing to note – Ingram’s 3-point attempts decreased by nearly one per game last season. This isn’t a huge issue if the shots he takes are better, and his were – he shot almost 10 percent better this past season than in his rookie year, approaching his collegiate accuracy during the one-and-done year at Duke. The percentage of 3s he took was much lower than the year before, but maybe he’s caught between finding his rhythm and finding his comfort zone.
Ingram is much more of a solo playmaker than either Korver or Miller ever was, though, and that will be to his benefit as well. If he can develop more of a transition game, particularly in the minutes LeBron sits, then the Lakers will be in some kind of business. Imagine LeBron outlets to a doubled Lonzo, who then feeds the rock to an unencumbered Ingram in the corner for a knockdown 3. Already, I can picture thousands of people tweeting out Jack Nicholson nodding in affirmation.
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As currently constructed, it takes some straining to even imagine these LeBron-ful Lakers making it through the Western Conference and into the playoffs (maybe the NBA’s best chance at parity is Golden State loafing for so long that they forget to wake up in time for the playoff hunt?). In any case, should the Lakers keep Ingram, which they absolutely should, then expect him and James to exact serious hurt on unsuspecting clowns, tired from their thousands of miles of flight and hoping for an easy night on the court after Ciroc-sponsored endeavors to the clerb in the City of Angels.