Pelicans: 3 ways Brandon Ingram can improve under Stan Van Gundy

Stan Van Gundy can help make Brandon Ingram an even better scorer for the New Orleans Pelicans by having him take on contact

Improvement #3- Having Brandon Ingram Attack the Basket

Last season, Brandon Ingram was a phenomenal scorer, there’s no doubt about it, but there was one area where his scoring still lacked. That area was Ingram’s willingness to attack the basket. All of last season fans could see that Ingram was hesitant to drive to the rim and take on contact which is partially why the Pelicans were one of the worst teams in the league in those categories.

There were too many times last season when Ingram would even make it into the paint only to pass out rather than absorbing contact and getting to the free-throw line. This is another element where I see Stan Van Gundy helping Brandon Ingram.

In our deep dive into Stan Van Gundy’s offense, we noted that Van Gundy loves running pick-and-roll and that he likes for his team to still get easy shots at the basket and free-throw attempts even though his offense is perimeter orientated. I think this will help Ingram.

In this offense, I envision Van Gundy slowly fostering Ingram to become a more willing attacker because I think Van Gundy will pick and choose opportunities where Ingram will be the primary ball-handler and pick-and-roll action and tell him to drive to the basket off the screen.

This means we could see a gradual build up of Ingram becoming a more willing scorer in the paint, until eventually he’s comfortable with that skill and does it on his own.

There’s no question that Stan Van Gundy was the right hire for the New Orleans Pelicans and the effect he could have on Brandon Ingram might be tremendous if he gets Ingram to improve in those three areas.