Pelicans: Here’s 14 things that defined Brandon Ingram’s first All-Star nod

7. Perhaps due to his existing chemistry with Lonzo Ball, the ball moves better for the Pelicans with Brandon Ingram on the floor (statistically).

Coming over to the New Orleans Pelicans alongside his creative teammate, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram clearly have a connection on the basketball court.

When the two share the floor, the Pelicans quickly become a swiss army knife, as the two both have a ton of different skills that are just augmented when combined on the hardwood.

Lonzo is a big part of the reason Ingram ranks in the 91st percentile in shots made on assisted baskets, as 20% of his looks are being set up by teammates.

Perhaps Ingram’s presence alone is enough to smooth the Pelicans offense, as the team is +0.3 points better on offense with him on the floor and turn the ball over 0.7 less, which ranks in a very nice 69th percentile among small forwards.

8. Alvin Gentry trusts Ingram in the clutch, which has been a successful conclusion.

While it hasn’t yielded perfect results throughout, the New Orleans Pelicans are empowering Brandon Ingram to take the team’s biggest shots in the biggest moments of games.

Fans will be quick to recall his career-high 49-point effort against the Utah Jazz in a game where he went toe-to-toe with Donovan Mitchell.

It was also in a game where the Pelicans snapped Utah’s ten-game winning streak, a stretch when the Jazz looked like one of the toughest knock-outs.

Ingram has been solid in clutch situations, where he’s averaging a team-high 2.5 points and shooting 33.3 from three-point range in the final five minutes of games with less than 5 points of separation.

When looking at how other star players perform in similar situations, Ingram’s line holds up with the best.

For comparison, Luka Dončić averages 2.7 points and shoots 18.5% from three in the same situations, while Kawhi Leonard averages 2.9 points and shoots 14.3% from three.

In tight moments, Ingram hasn’t been perfect, but at the very least he’s basically matching the production of other star players when the lights shine brightest.

9. Ingram’s willingness to take an altered role in the offense when Zion Williamson was impressive and encouraging.

Changing an offense in the middle of the season is never an easy task, which is why it was somewhat predictable to see Brandon Ingram initially shrink when Zion Williamson returned to the court.

Despite choppy waters in the first three or four games, Ingram has quickly adapted and is now even more efficient when on the floor, even though some of his touches are being vultured by Williamson (who certainly deserves plentiful touches in his own right).

What’s been so impressive to watch is Ingram’s willingness as an on-ball player to be a playmaker for Zion.

The two are probably the most important wheels for the New Orleans Pelicans future, so seeing them creating for each other has been quite an exciting feat.

When they share the court, the Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, the Pelicans have been really great, as the duo has a +7.3 net rating in 134 minutes.

Their pairing on defense is particularly stifling, as they’re rating on that end of 98.7 is the third-best on the team in combination with over 100 minutes of runtime. The two duos ahead of them both include Williamson, just with Derrick Favors and Lonzo Ball instead of Ingram.