Brandon Ingram - Midrange Mastery 19/20

Brandon Ingram. 2020 NBA All-Star. Ingram’s game (and his scoring average) has continued to grow over the course of his NBA life. He came in with some lofty expectation; the first selection in Los Angeles post Kobe Bryant’s retirement. Due to his length, lankiness, slender frame, and scoring touch, he has been compared to a young Kevin Durant. In his final season with the Lakers, he was teamed with LeBron James, a man who currently sits 3rd on the all-time NBA scoring list and 8th in all-time assists. Those are the quite the names to mentioned in the same sentence as. Ingram’s points per game have grown every season he’s been in the league, and this past season, he’s made the leap, going from 18.3 PPG in his last year as a Laker to 24.2 PPG in New Orleans. That number is better than the likes of fellow All-Stars Pascal Siakam, Jayson Tatum, and D’Angelo Russell (and tied with Donovan Mitchell).
The one-time Duke Blue Devil has become a more efficient and more dynamic scorer across the board but one thing that he has always seemed to gravitate towards is the art of the midrange. His lankiness allows him to get shots off against even taller defenders. Deployed as a point forward earlier in his career by Luke Walton likely allowed Brandon to grow more a playmaker than he otherwise would have. His ability to make the right reads at the right times is still progressing, but where he has made great strides is knowing how to get to his spots and rise up. His footwork is rock solid, and it is clear that he has worked to get stronger in order to finish with and through contact.
Ingram’s got some length on him. Standing at somewhere around 6’7” (which, let’s face it, he is definitely taller than that), a normal person’s wingspan is about 2 inches more than your height, but Ingram’s measures out around 7’3”. Steve Kerr once said about wingspan: "It's legit. It's much more important than your height, ... I'm a big believer in that." For reference, reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo stands at 6’11” with a 7’3 wingspan.
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Kerr quote:
apnews.com/3d2...