Early in the offseason the Los Angeles Lakers received plenty of calls inquiring about Brandon Ingram, who improved drastically over the second half of his rookie season.
Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson deemed Ingram untouchable, as he had no desire to trade the purple and gold’s brightest young star at the time.
While the would be flattering to many players knowing that their front office is 100 percent behind them, Ingram looked at it in a different way. In a recent interview with Lakers Reporter Mike Trudell, Ingram address Johnson’s comments about him being untouchable, saying that hearing it made him want to work even harder, motivating him in a sense:
“When you really think about it, it shouldn’t make you comfortable at all. It should make you work even harder. It’s not a burden, but he put it on you, so you feel like you want to go even harder to show that this is the reason why he said this. For me, my own expectations are higher than what anybody else can say. But Magic sits on that sideline every single day and gives advice to each and every guy whether they’re playing or not. It’s special to see him giving pointers whether it’s defense, offense, on the court, off the court. It’s going to help us.”
The expectations are high for Ingram heading into his second NBA season as he will look to make the leap to being one of the team’s primary scoring and playmaking options as well as a leader on and off the court.
One of Ingram’s biggest weaknesses his rookie year was his jump shot, which he said he has gotten comfortable with this offseason. If he can improve his outside shooting then he will be one of the toughest players to guard in the league due to his length and size.