Don’t let late season injuries overshadow Brandon Ingram’s progress

Despite missing the last couple weeks with various injuries, Brandon Ingram improved across the board in his second NBA season.

It has been a struggle for Brandon Ingram to stay on the court since the beginning of March, initially missing five games with a groin injury before suffering a concussion on Mar. 30 that will likely cost him the rest of the NBA regular season. It is disappointing that him (and Lonzo Ball) will miss the closing stretch of games, but don’t let his absence overshadow the progress made in his second season.

Ingram had a disappointing rookie season given the expectations surrounding him as the second pick of the 2016 NBA Draft of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the hype surrounding of the 2017 draft class made him somewhat of an afterthought heading into this season. But in a system with players aligned with his skill-set, we saw a much better player taking on more responsibility.

The sophomore wing from Duke increased his per game averages this season in minutes (28.8 per game to 33.5), points (9.4 per game to 16.1), field goal percentage (40.2 percent to 47.0 percent) assists (2.1 per game to 3.9) and rebounds (4.0 per game to 5.3). We’ll get into the circumstances surrounding his jump in production, but these numbers show a player that is figuring how he can be effective.

I’ll dive into individual reviews for each player after the season concludes, but I felt the need to highlight three positives from Brandon Ingram’s season, with him missing 15 of the last 17 games and 23 overall on the campaign.