Does Brandon Ingram have a future in NO?
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 5:47 pm
Did Pelicans make a mistake not getting Ingram signed to a long-term contract (potentially) at a discount last summer?
The RingerThe NBA All-Development Team
Whose games have taken the biggest leaps? We name the 10 players who’ve made the most impressive progress so far in the 2019-20 season
Brandon Ingram, New Orleans Pelicans
It was touch and go for a minute there, but it seems that Ingram has grown beyond a Wigginsian purgatory of hollow, high-volume scoring. There is real substance behind the numbers he’s putting up in New Orleans this season, even as the Pelicans on the whole have floundered on both sides of the ball. This is the best that Ingram has ever looked when given the freedom to drive possessions; improved reads and a healthier shot distribution have helped the fourth-year forward to carry what is easily the heaviest workload of his career. Thanks to those changes, this has also been Ingram’s most efficient campaign yet. A player who lived and died in the midrange is now shooting the best 3-point percentage of his career (41.0) while nearly tripling his attempts. He even hit a career-high seven 3s in the team’s Christmas win over the Nuggets. Alvin Gentry’s offense can sometimes be a bit too improvisational for its own good, but the new-and-improved Ingram is the Pelican most qualified to wing it through open space.