Should Brandon Ingram’s struggles worry Lakers fans?

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There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being selected as the number 2 pick in the NBA draft. Brandon Ingram may be feeling that early on this preseason as this has not been the best start for the young forward. Following the draft, many were describing him as the future of this Los Angeles Lakers team. With so many expectations, there’s no question that people were looking for Ingram to come out firing in his preseason games but that quite hasn’t happened.

Brandon Ingram
           Brandon Ingram’s stats so far during the preseason.

Brandon Ingram’s shot hasn’t been falling and he hasn’t looked to be that aggressive. However, his early struggles hasn’t worried Lakers coach, Luke Walton.

“He was good at some things and bad at others,” Walton said. “He’s young. He still looks like he’s rushing his shot a little bit, which I’m not concerned with at all.”

“Ingram is a lights-out shooter in practice”, the first-year coach said.

Lakers point guard, D’Angelo Russell also downplayed Ingram’s shooting struggles as well as stating that he just has to get adjusted:

“I feel like you have to get shots at the NBA arena, not the practice facility,” Russell said. “When I first got my chance to shoot out here in a pregame last year it was different. You have to get shots up at the Staples Center.”

Russell is spot on in his synopsis of Ingram’s play thus far. People get adjusted to things differently and that includes getting acclimated to the NBA. Some guys get it quicker than others and that’s the case here. It seems that Ingram is still getting the butterflies out and trying to find his place in the NBA. It’s only preseason and he has a lot of time to figure it out. As fans, we obviously want him to get adjusted sooner than later but in reality, that’s not always the case.

What I would like to see from Brandon Ingram is more aggressiveness. He’s playing with a second unit where there’s no go to scorer besides Jordan Clarkson. The Lakers drafted him because they envisioned him being an immediate scoring threat but if he’s not aggressive, it doesn’t really help anyone. Los Angeles won’t have a lot of wins in the win column this year so Ingram has nothing to lose. This season is all about getting accustomed under Luke Walton, gaining chemistry, and gaining confidence. It’s very early in the year so I’m not worried about Brandon Ingram’s premature struggles.

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