Los Angeles Lakers: Should Brandon Ingram start or come off the bench?

Should the Los Angeles Lakers continue starting Brandon Ingram when he returns from injury or should he move to a bench role?

Los Angeles Lakers fans are split down the middle on whether Brandon Ingram should start when he comes back from his ankle injury or if he should come off the bench. Let’s take a look at the numbers and see what makes the most sense for the Lakers.

Here are the Lakers three most successful lineups so far this year:

1. Ball, Hart, James, Kuzma, McGee: 107 minutes played, +26 points

2. Ball, Hart, James, Kuzma, Chandler: 35 minutes played, + 24 points

3. KCP, Hart, McGee, Rondo, Stephenson: 21 minutes played, +13 points

Ingram doesn’t appear in any of the Lakers’ three best lineups, but Josh Hart is in all of them.

The Lakers’ starting lineup of Lonzo Ball, Ingram, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, and JaVale McGee have played the most out of any Lakers 5-man unit, at 234 total minutes, but they have a -1 +/- ratio.

Over the last 15 games, Brandon Ingram has the 2nd best Defensive Rating (minimum 20 minutes per game) on the Lakers, behind Tyson Chandler. So, why have the lineups he’s played in not fared better?

Brandon Ingram has one huge weakness in his offensive game: He stops the ball. The Lakers are blessed with two of the best passers in the game; Lonzo Ball and LeBron James.

Ball and James have great court vision so they can see when a Lakers player has just enough daylight to get a shot off. Throughout a Lakers game, Ball and James constantly set up all of the Lakers perimeter players for “barely-open” shots around the court.

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Kuzma, Hart, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lance Stephenson, and even Svi Mykhailiuk take advantage of those opportunities by taking the shots they should.

Ingram never shoots “barely-open” shots and he rarely takes advantage of his open catch-and-shoot opportunities. Instead, when Brandon Ingram receives a pass for a quick-release 3-pointer, he dribbles four feet inside the arc and takes a contested 2-pointer.

When Ingram gets a pass and the defense is slightly out of position, if he doesn’t want to shoot, he should at least drive to the rim. But, he prefers to hold the ball and wait for the defense to reset. Simply put: At this stage in Brandon Ingram’s career, he isn’t capable of making quick decisions on the basketball court.

The numbers back up what has been seen throughout the season from Brandon. This year, 62 percent of Ingram’s made field goals have come unassisted. That’s a ridiculously high number for a 3rd year player like Ingram.

During the 2005-2006 season, when Kobe Bryant played 41 minutes a night, averaged 35 points per game, and dragged a Lakers team featuring Smush “I’m not an NBA player” Parker, Kwame Brown, Chris Mihm, and Devean George into the playoffs, his unassisted field goals percentage was 56.2.

Look at a few other current players’ FGM% Unassisted:

Jimmy Butler: 47.9%

Kevin Durant: 58.8%

Kawhi Leonard: 64%

Giannis Antetokounmpo: 54.3%

Maybe in a few years, Ingram will be ready to go one-on-one at around the same rate as today’s best NBA players, but right now he’s just not ready.

Lonzo Ball has averaged five assists per game this season, and LeBron James has averaged seven APG, for a combined 12 assists per game. Since Ingram was injured, LeBron and Ball are averaging a combined 15 assists per game and Kuzma is starting to make some great passes as well.

The Lakers offense definitely flows better when Ingram is not playing, because all the other Lakers players who surround Ball, LeBron, and to some extent Kuzma, take advantage of their great passing ability. Hart, KCP, Svi, Stephenson, McGee, and Chandler make quick decisions after they get a pass, whether it’s shooting, swinging the ball to another player, or driving down the lane.

I think it’s clear that the Lakers would be better served starting Hart in place of Ingram because he fits better with the first unit, but that is no slight against Ingram.

Hart is a reliable defender, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near as good as Ingram, which makes Brandon an incredibly valuable player for the Lakers. In fact, there’s a good chance the Lakers would have beaten the Spurs in San Antonio and the Rockets in Houston if Ingram had been healthy.

James Harden and DeMar DeRozan tore the Lakers D apart during the closing minutes of both games, but if Ingram had been able to play, he would have made things much more difficult on them with his length and quick feet.

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In the future, I’d love to see Ingram start for the Lakers, but during this season Hart is a better fit with the starting unit because he works within the offense and he makes quick reads. Ingram should still play around 30 minutes a game and on most nights his defense will be needed to close out games.

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