With the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener on Thursday, many eyes will be on second-year forward Brandon Ingram. The front office has put a lot of expectations on Ingram who had a less than stellar preseason.
The major expectation for Ingram came from president of basketball operations Magic Johnson, who claimed that he would be disappointed if Ingram didn’t average 20 points this season. Magic has since backed off that claim, saying he just wants Ingram to have fun, but the proclamation hasn’t been forgotten.
Many have claimed that the expectations placed on Ingram were too much, but Ingram doesn’t agree as he told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports:
“I don’t think five points a quarter is too much to ask for, at all. With the skill that I have and the ability to score and everything I can do once I get my rhythm back, I think that’s not hard at all.”
Ingram added, however, that he wants to be more than just a scorer and fill the stat sheet:
“But I want to be a stat-line guy. Fill in the stat sheet, whether it’s rebounding the basketball, whether it’s deflections, whether it’s steals, whether it’s assists, whether it’s scoring the basketball, just trying to fill that stat line. Just doing everything on the floor that I can to help my team be effective and win.”
Ingram has proven that he can affect the game in multiple ways as even in he is struggling shooting. He averaged four rebounds and 2.1 assists as a rookie despite his well-chronicled shooting issues. This preseason was more of the same as he admittedly had issues scoring, but again added 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists.
Eventually, Ingram will need to turn the corner as far as his efficiency and finding his shot and he ended the preseason with an excellent performance. But even if he never becomes a top-flight scorer, he will still make an impact every night with the rest of his game.