Los Angeles Lakers player rankings through first 30 games of the season
6. Josh Hart
2018-19 per game stats: 9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.03 steals, 0.67 blocks
VORP: 0.4, 4th on the Lakers
WS: 1.4, 5th on the Lakers
DEFRTG (last 10 games, minimum 10 minutes per game): 100.9, 2nd on the Lakers
OFFRTG (last 10 games, minimum 10 minutes per game): 11.7, 3rd on the Lakers
MOET: 5
Josh Hart makes me happy when I watch him. Dude goes hard all game. I’ve never seen him take a play off, not even once. He’s the player KCP should be. He’s hitting 38 percent of his 3-point attempts for the season. He drives down the lane like a runaway train and he’s one of the best players in the league at finishing a fast break. He can also D up smaller player’s on the perimeter and guard bigger player’s on the block. What a find for the Lakers!
5. Brandon Ingram
2018-19 per game stats: 15.2 points, 4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.7 blocks
VORP: -0.4, 16th on the Lakers
WS: 0.3, 10th on the Lakers
DEFRTG (last 10 games, minimum 10 minutes per game): 95.3, 1st on the Lakers
OFFRTG (last 10 games, minimum 10 minutes per game): 100.4, 11th on the Lakers
MOET: 9
Ingram’s advanced stats are horrible and he’s a dumpster fire on offense. Dude loves shooting deep 2’s and he’s allergic to passing the basketball, but he’s a beast on defense. He’s, as of right now, one of the 10 best perimeter defenders in the league. He’s got quick feet, a massive wingspan, and he plays defense just as hard as Josh Hart.
The Lakers are 7-3 over the last ten games and all three losses came while Ingram was injured. In the loss to the San Antonio Spurs, DeMar DeRozan put up 36 points. In the loss to the Houston Rockets, James Harden scored 50 points. In the loss to the Washington Wizards, John Wall dropped 40 points.
I don’t know if the Lakers would have won all three of those games if Ingram had been playing, but I guarantee they would have had a much better chance if Brandon hadn’t been injured because there’s no way Ingram would have let those three players go off the way they did.
Do you think Harden could have scored 50 points against Ingram? Yeah right. Ingram would have shut down his ridiculous 3-point attempts and he never would have fouled him on the perimeter the way Josh Hart did. Same goes for DeRozan. Ingram’s length would have bothered him on the block and he wouldn’t have come close to dropping 36 points on the Lakers.
The Lakers need Ingram’s perimeter defense and those 3 losses show exactly how valuable Ingram is to the team. Come back quick Brandon!