Los Angeles Lakers: Should Brandon Ingram reclaim his starting spot?

Unlike the other Los Angeles Lakers starter to lose his place after suspension, Brandon Ingram should regain his spot in the starting five over Kyle Kuzma.

An eventful seven days for the Los Angeles Lakers concluded Saturday night with a 110-106 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. A week prior to that was the on-court scuffle with the Houston Rockets that led to the Lakers playing shorthanded this past week as Rajon Rondo (three games) and Brandon Ingram (four games) were suspended for their roles in the fight.

The Lakers went 2-2 in those seven days, with both losses coming to the Spurs in closely contested games that they missed plenty of opportunities to close out San Antonio. There were a trio of changes to the starting lineup to begin the week, with all three first round picks from the 2017 NBA Draft joining LeBron James and JaVale McGee in the starting five.

Josh Hart replacing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the lone non-suspension related change out of the three, as Lonzo Ball took Rondo’s place and Kyle Kuzma took Ingram’s place in the frontcourt. Lonzo played great in his four starts, averaging 11.0 points, 5.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 2.0 steals and just 2.3 turnovers per game.

He’s a much better fit compared to Rondo with the Lakers’ starting five given Lonzo’s 40 percent shooting on 3-point attempts to increase space and lack of ball pounding to increase ball movement. There is also a case to be made that Lonzo is a better defender than Rondo with the former having success in picking up defenders full-court in recent games.

Kuzma has been effective in Ingram’s role as well, averaging 22.8 points on 34.6 percent shooting from deep and 50.0 percent on all field goal attempts, plus 4.8 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in his four starts. It’s impossible to ignore what Kuzma brings to the table and how instant his chemistry with LeBron was formed, but should he maintain his place with Brandon Ingram back from suspension?

There are a couple ways to look at this. I wrote after the first game that Ingram needed his minutes staggered with LeBron and Rondo to get the most out of his driving and ball-handling ability that he flashed all last season. It’s tough for him to maximize this skill-set playing with a pair of ball-dominant players,

With Rondo now coming off the bench, finding lineups where Ingram is the main creator will be hard to come by. Playing with Rondo allows the floor to be congested as well, and the spacing of the starting five is much better than the current bench unit. This is why Brandon Ingram should retake his starting role over Kuzma moving forward.

For starters, playing alongside LeBron is easier than sharing the court with Rondo. While both are great passers, LeBron is better at keeping the ball moving and has shown throughout his career a willingness to play with ball-dominant players, such as Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving.
Ingram would be given freedom to attack the basket and placed in scenarios where he’ll have two shooters in Ball and Hart spotting up, McGee looming around the paint for lobs and LeBron taking defenses’ attention standing wherever he pleases.

Kuzma obviously opens the floor, but his shooting and scoring prowess is needed off the bench where he can develop into a legit Sixth Man of the Year candidate this season. With Rondo and Lance Stephenson (the walking GIF has played well) not being the best shooters, Kuzma’s shooting is a must for those to functionally operate.

The Lakers shuffled their lineup by removing Kuz and Josh Hart from the bench, and this hurt their bench. Their 45.5 bench points in the first two games (eighth in NBA in that span) dropped to 36.3 points over the past four games (20th in NBA over that span). Replacing Hart’s and Kuzma’s bench minutes with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk will obviously affect it, but Kuzma’s versatility to fit in any lineup is better suited off the bench.

In the end, both Kuzma and Ingram will be on the floor for the closing minutes, or should be. Playing a frontcourt of these two and LeBron will get punished by big men, but the offensive advantages are too strong to ignore. All in all, having too many solid players is one of the best problems to have if you’re a head coach in the NBA.