Los Angeles Lakers: Luke Walton believes Brandon Ingram can be great
By Nick Ziegler
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton recently said that he believes Brandon Ingram will do great things in the NBA.
Even though the Los Angeles Lakers may not have had as of a season as they wanted to, there were a lot of positive takeaways for them this season.
One of the most important things for the Lakers to see this season was the development of Brandon Ingram. The Lakers took Ingram with the second overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and he came out of Duke with a ton of potential.
Despite being the second overall pick, Ingram didn’t have a great rookie season for the Lakers. In his rookie season, Ingram averaged 9.4 points and shot just 40 percent from the field. As a scorer, Ingram took a huge leap this season, as he averaged 16.1 points per games on 47 percent shooting from the field. While Ingram didn’t shoot a ton of 3-pointers this season, he did improve his percentage by 10 percent.
Recently, Luke Walton talked about Ingram and what type of player he can become. Here’s what he said to Harrison Faigen of LakersNation.com.
"“You have to have the skill set to fuel your game. When I spend as much time around these guys as I do, you get to see what they’re capable of doing,” Walton explained. “I think Brandon has the skill set, the work ethic and the feel to really do great things in this league.”"
Seeing the jump that Ingram took in his second year is certainly an indication that he can become a great player in the league. In addition to his big jump in the scoring department, Ingram also improved in every other major category.
Ingram showed signs this season of being able to be that elite player that the Lakers hope he can be. At just 20-years-old, Ingram is far from a finished product as a player. However, his improvement since his rookie season shows that he is a hard worker.
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Entering his third season, Ingram has a chance to become a borderline All-Star player if he takes another step forward. Seeing how well he was able to play at times this season, Ingram becoming an All-Star in the near future is very possible.