Being A Pelican Is Going To Be Good For Brandon Ingram

Aside from everything else, the local cuisine should fatten him up a bit.

Former Blue Devil Brandon Ingram came to New Orleans in the trade with the LA Lakers for Anthony Davis.

This article from TheRinger.com asks, basically, where he stands in his career development and is it worth it to make a serious investment in his future.

There were three plays in particular that stood out for us last season: first, the fight he got into with Chris Paul. It struck us because Ingram is a pretty peaceful type and it takes a lot to get him worked up enough to fight. He rarely even shows emotion. That said, during his career, Paul has managed to severely irritate a number of opponents. He’s an immense talent but he’s always been a bit of a cheap shot artist as Julius Hodge will attest.

Second was a series of in-bounds plays - three or four - where the passer simply couldn’t get the ball past Ingram. He just kept deflecting it out of bounds. There was no getting it past him, much to the delight of then-teammate Lebron James.

Third was a play where he literally turned his back on James on the court. Like the fight, it seemed out of character. Ingram has never been a difficult teammate but apparently a lot of guys had trouble adjusting to James’s presence last season on the Lakers.

Those three plays (counting the sequence as one) sort of sums up Ingram’s public profile. He’s immensely talented, unbelievably long, still extremely skinny and a bit enigmatic.

Jonathan Tjarks does a good job of explaining risk/reward with Ingram but he misses two very important points.

1) David Griffin loves him and has coveted him for some time. He has described him as an “Inspector Gadget” because of his length and raved about his potential.

And he’s just 22.

2) We learned last season that it’s hard to overstate the impact that Zion Williamson has on a team and we don’t mean just talent wise.

Williamson’s charisma is obvious from the cheap seats. What people don't always appreciate (though we suspect Duke fans do) is the emotional impact he has on a group. As dazzling as his talent was at Duke, he always made sure to focus on the team. He would made Mike Buckmire, then a walk-on, a minor celebrity by essentially interviewing him during his own interviews, and publicly said “this is RJ (Barrett’s) team.”

In high school he did a number of things that drew attention away from himself and to his teammates.

And there you have an interesting paradox.

His high school coach has said that while he encouraged Williamson to be a showman, that his protege is essentially an introvert.

So while he is living his dream, at heart he’s a quiet kid who doesn't need the attention. He’s happy to shift the spotlight to others and his teammates like Ingram and fellow rookie Jaxon Hayes will benefit from that.

This will also make it easier for them to cheer for him when he does the stunning things that he does.

In short, the atmosphere in the New Orleans locker room should be great. It’s a very young team that can emotionally coalesce around Williams, who will, if he hasn’t already, agree with Griffin that this is Jrue Holiday’s team.

All of this will should help Ingram immensely.