8 Things No One Saw Coming (Western Conference)
Three weeks after the NBA opened their season, the competitive West has showcased a bunch of surprises that may be trends now or may last all the way until June.
The Brandon Ingram Question Has Changed
Brandon Ingram was the number 2 pick in the 2016 NBA draft. In 2019-20, he’s playing like an All-Star.
Brandon Ingram Has to Work For the Money
Brandon Ingram will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2020, if the Pelicans don’t offer him an extension. If denied an extension, Ingram can make the Pelicans regret their decision by having an aggressive year and staying healthy.
Brandon Ingram Skirted Disaster
It could have been a lot worse for Brandon Ingram. It could have been the first step towards a Chris Bosh future meaning no more basketball. A blood clot in the shoulder is rare. The Lakers were so demoralized by the reason for Ingram’s shoulder pain that no one wanted to talk about it, citing…
Brandon Ingram’s Blood Clot Is A Game Changer
Blood clots are serious in a way an ACL rupture or an Achilles tear is not. Blood clots are life threatening as the clot can travel to the heart or brain withing minutes, causing instant death. Diagnosed with a blood clot, as Brandon Ingram recently was, means a lifestyle change for at least six months.…
Jamal Murray Is Living the Life Brandon Ingram Can’t
In the 2016 NBA draft, Brandon Ingram was selected 2nd and Jamal Murray was selected 7th. Both came from elite programs, Duke and Kentucky respectively. Both were one and done players that were drafted into the Western Conference to teams that didn’t have an All-Star and their respective coaches were new on the job. (Luke…
Luke Walton Matters (Even In A LeBron James Universe)
Luke Walton has his share of detractors who take issue with his substitutions patterns, his seemingly indifference to LeBron James as the default coach, his teams pathetic free throw percentage, his placid expression coupled with his mediocre after timeout plays. Who has really developed under Luke Walton? Brandon Ingram hasn’t. Lonzo Ball hasn’t. There…
Note to Conspiracy Theorists: Stop Bringing Up Bobby Portis
We all agree the Lakers suspensions veer on the lighter side of things. Brandon Ingram probably should have gotten 10 games for starting the ruckus and then coming back to have the last word. Yes, the tape was analyzed deeper than the Zabruder film. Accidental spit from Rondo left his mouth and hit Paul in…
There Will Be Blood. Sort of. Not Really.
True to predictions, the Lakers were grossly undisciplined in a moment that mattered but the optics were all wrong. Michael Beasley and Lance Stephenson were not agitators but bystanders (Beasley), or peacemakers (Stephenson). It was left to the immature, the veteran and the aggrieved to make LeBron James home debut a farce that will undoubtedly…
Earning LeBron’s Trust
What we knew in July is still true. LeBron James is surrounded by a bunch of average shooters. The only way for him to have success this season is for him to be off ball. But to be off ball he has to give up the rock. To give up the rock, he has to…