Los Angeles Lakers: 2017-18 player grades for Brandon Ingram

Brandon Ingram missed a quarter of the 2017-18 season with injuries, but that shouldn’t cloud the improvements he made in his second NBA campaign.

It’s easy to forget how well a player performed earlier in the year when they miss 19 of the last 21 games of the regular season, and it seems this has happened with Brandon Ingram, who sat out those games with a combination of his groin injury and then a concussion.

While availability may be the best ability, Ingram made great progress in his sophomore season for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ingram made statistical improvements in nearly every category from his rookie season on a per game basis, including points (16.1), rebounds (5.3), assists (3.9), steals (0.8) and blocks (0.7). These number increases shouldn’t be too surprising, but he was granted a great deal of responsibility in terms of handling the ball in pressure situations, and showed signs of being a legit creator that can run an offense.

It’s easy to get caught up in the ensuing free agency summer period that will be discussed extensively, not to mention the strong play of the Lakers’ rookie class, but Ingram is probably the most talented player on the roster, and would have been my MVP for the team had he not miss 23 games on the year. Let’s look back at his second NBA season, beginning with his strengths.