Los Angeles Lakers: Brandon Ingram can make the All-NBA Third Team

Brandon Ingram is primed to make a big leap for the Los Angeles Lakers in year three. Could Ingram’s third year turn into an All-NBA Third Team inclusion?

The Los Angeles Lakers have the best player in the NBA now in LeBron James and one of the best young cores in the league. Headlining that young core is third-year small forward, Brandon Ingram.

Ingram has perhaps the highest ceiling of the Lakers’ young core and is the closest to reaching his full potential. The product of Duke University was selected with the second overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, one pick behind Ben Simmons.

Simmons certainly set the bar high for his fellow draftmates with a great Rookie of the Year season last year (missed all of 2016-2017 with injury). Simmons is already on that all-star level and should be a lock to make the team next season.

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Ingram does not have the same hype around him as Simmons does but has a pretty decent chance of being an all-star candidate. If Ingram progresses as he did from year one to year two, an all-star appearance is a virtual lock.

However, an all-star berth next season is not the ceiling for Ingram. The third-year forward could earn some All-NBA honors.

I think that the All-NBA Third Team is a conceivable goal for Ingram to set his sights on this season. It definitely is on the challenging side, but he can easily put up the numbers that it would take.

So, what would it take? Last year, the All-NBA Third Team included Stephen Curry, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo and Karl Anthony-Towns. George and Butler are the obvious players we want to target in our analysis.

George averaged 21.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. George shot 43 percent from the field, 40.1 percent from beyond the arc and 82.2 percent from the free-throw line. Defensively, George averaged 2.0 steals and 0.5 blocks and was a top-15 or so defender in the league.

Butler had very similar numbers with 22.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. He shot 47.4 percent, 35 percent and 85.4 percent from the field, three-point line and free-throw line. Butler also made the All-NBA Second Team with 2.0 steals and 0.4 blocks per game.

Those are respectable numbers without a doubt but nothing that Ingram cannot achieve. Just last season Ingram averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.

Ingram is naturally going to score more points with LeBron James facilitating. Three more baskets a game puts him right at the 22.1 per game mark. His rebounding should be around the same and his assists numbers will be slightly up with the tempo the Lakers play at.

Defensively, Ingram is not as good as George or Butler but has the size and length that could result in decent defensive numbers. Both his steals and blocks were narrowly under one a game and could hit the one per game mark this year.

If Brandon Ingram is going to make the All-NBA third team he is going to need to score 22-23 points, five-six rebounds and five or so assists per game.

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Those statistical leaps are more than conceivable for Ingram, especially considering his production last season. The Los Angeles Lakers very well could have two All-NBA players this season.

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