Brandon Ingram of the New Orleans Pelicans will make All-NBA if he does these three things.
The New Orleans Pelicans have two cornerstone players in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, both of whom could be All-NBA players as soon as next season.
Ingram broke out last season, winning the Most Improved Player award and narrowly missing making the All-NBA team.
That’s actually a good thing for the Pelicans, as it saved them some money, but now that Ingram is locked into a max deal, they are hoping he takes the next step to become one of the top-15 players in the league.
Here is how he can do it.
New Orleans Pelicans: Brandon Ingram must get better defensively
Become an average defender
The only thing stopping Ingram from being one of the best wings in the game is his defense. There are too many good two-way wings like Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam for Ingram to make the team as a below-average defender, which he is.
Last season, Jrue Holiday and Josh Hart were often tasked with defending the other team’s best wing because Ingram simply couldn’t. This wasn’t a good scenario, as the Pels were often undersized at the position and still are, which is why wing is still the biggest need after the draft and free agency.
Ingram will be asked to carry the Pels’ offense a lot, so they obviously don’t want to tax him too much on the defensive end, but if he could just become a league-average defender who can guard his own position, that would be great.
There are a lot of guys in the NBA who aren’t great defenders but hardly any of them make an All-NBA team.