Los Angeles Lakers: 3 ways Brandon Ingram can improve

2. Improve his 3-point shooting

Since coming into the league, Ingram has been mostly disappointing from beyond the arc. While he saw a substantial increase to his 3-point percentage from his rookie year to his sophomore season (29.4% vs. 39.0%), this number may be more directly a result of just launching less deep balls (2.4 vs. 1.8). This year, his percentage fell back down to 33%, even though he hit just 0.1 fewer 3-balls per game on the same volume (0.7 vs. 0.6).

The up-and-down is reminiscent to a player like the Portland Trail Blazers’ Maurice Harkless. He hit a career-high 41.5% of his triples a year ago, which seemed like a major upgrade from the 35.1% from the year before that. However, upon a closer look, he really just took fewer of them (2.5 vs. 2.0) and converted almost the same number of them each game (0.9 vs. 0.8).

Although nobody looks at Harkless as a shooter (he is shooting 27.5% from deep this year), many still have hope for Ingram to find the range on his shot. Unfortunately, their bumpy 3-point percentages make them look like very similar players from the outside – inconsistent, low volume guys.

Being a better 3-point shooter generally would create more space for him when driving to the basket. Ingram lacks the type of explosion to blow by defenders facing up with him, and so being a threat from deep could give him an extra step on them when they go to close out on a pump fake.

Adding a pull-up 3-point shot would do even more for him. Disclaimer: this is the toughest shot in basketball, and it would be foolish to expect Ingram came back next season drilling them – especially since he has never really taken this shot. However, he did shoot a decent 43.8% on pull-up twos on 4.6 attempts per game. He has the ability to shoot off-the-dribble, just not the range.

Here, he gets CJ McCollum on his back from the JaVale McGee screen. However, Jusuf Nurkic can hang back in the paint and meet him at the rim. If Ingram could freeze Nurk, or even get him to take an extra step forward with a hesitation move at the arc, he could get a much better shot going past the big man.

Regardless of whether Ingram ever becomes a higher volume shooter, he needs his corner three percentage to return to where it was in 2017-18. That year, he hit 47% of his attempts from the corner, ranking in the 87th percentile for wings. This year, he hit only 34% of his corner threes, dropping him to the 26th percentile. To play alongside LeBron, Ingram has to be a threat from the corners at the very least. James’s gravity breeds open looks from there.

So, Ingram should take things one step at a time: become reliable from the corners, then become a threat from all around the arc to open up his game. Gaining a pull-up three would just be icing on the cake and take him to the next level.