Brandon Ingram’s Rookie Season
Brandon Ingram was the 2nd overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Coming out of his lone season at Duke University, Ingram averaged 17.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG and 2.0 APG for Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils. The consensus going into the draft was that Ingram had the ability to be an elite two-way player who could be an excellent defender but also one of the league’s premier scorers.
There were still questions, however, about his strength and durability as it was immediately apparent how thin Ingram was coming out of college.
Weighing only 190 pounds entering the NBA Draft, some scouts and teams were concerned about how Ingram would handle the physicality of the NBA.
Going into the season, Ingram had a great showing in the Summer League, showing flashes of his scoring ability while also showing his ability to create offense for himself.
But, going into the regular season, newly hired head coach Luke Walton was tasked with trying to find minutes for his young forward while also finding a role for the freshly acquired Luol Deng, who at the time, was still a respected veteran in the NBA.
Walton elected to bring Ingram off of the bench to start the season. However, we all knew that it was only temporary as Ingram would eventually take over as the future small forward for the Lakers.
Early on, Ingram struggled to find his groove offensively and you could definitely tell that the physical nature of the NBA was something he had not yet adjusted to.
What we saw on the court was a guy who struggled mightily to shoot the 3-point shot, shooting 29 percent on the season. Just like Lonzo Ball after him, Ingram looked unaggressive and disengaged during some games.
Ingram started off pretty slow. He would have a game where he would score 10,12 or maybe even 15 points. But, he also had a lot of game where he would score two, five and would even go scoreless in some games.
It did not look good at first and it even prompted people to call him a bust.
But It became clear down the road that all he needed were more opportunities to show his skill.
Midway through the season, Ingram became the full time starter at small forward and Luke Walton immediately began experimenting with Ingram’s abilities, mainly by using Ingram at point guard. His first notable game was when the Lakers faced the Golden State Warriors on November 23, 2016, when Ingram scored 16 points in his first NBA start.
A few weeks later, on December 17, 2016, Ingram had a near triple double against the Cleveland Cavaliers scoring nine points, 10 rebounds and nine assists almost becoming the youngest player ever to accomplish that feat.
It wasn’t until after the All-Star Break that Ingram really started to take off.
Ingram surpassed 20 points for the first time against the San Antonio Spurs on February 26, 2017, scoring 22 points in a loss.
He made it clear that his goal for the second half of the season was to be more aggressive and to embrace the challenge of going against guys like Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, using them to light a fire that would eventually unlock his potential.
Ingram went on to have a stellar 2nd half of the season, which saw him have more opportunities to show what he could do. Ingram played more aggressive and looked more comfortable with his teammates than ever before.
He finished the year averaging 9.4 PPG, 2.1 APG and 4.0 RPG.
Capping off his rookie season was an NBA All-Rookie second team selection, and now Ingram looked forward to the next chapter in his NBA career.