Let’s discuss: Which young Lakers player is the most important?

The case for Brandon Ingram:

Keith Rivas:

Not a lot of people may see Brandon Ingram as the piece to the puzzle for the Lakers that stands out as more important than Lonzo Ball or Kyle Kuzma, but I believe that he is.

The sophomore guard out of Duke is making strides for it being his second year in the NBA, and you have to give him more credit than anyone else that is comparable to him at the moment, but for good reason. In both of his seasons, Ingram has had to deal with tremendous distractions both on and off the court.

In his rookie year, he saw the beginning and execution of an exile directed at D’Angelo Russell, mostly because of doubts pertaining to his maturity. While that might’ve been a valid point, the fact that Magic Johnson decided to ultimately trade him last summer came with necessary adjustments needing to be made, specifically with a pass-first point guard in Lonzo Ball coming to down and bringing a completely different playing style to the team.

So far, it’s fair to say he’s made the big changes, but unfortunately how good he can be is dependent on answering the question of what the roles will really look like for Kuzma and Ball moving forward.

To me, Ingram has the less serious question marks and anything that’s iffy about his style of play at this point will change drastically with time, but more importantly how consistent his environment around him is.