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Brandon Ingram reminds me of a spider. He has those long, skinny limbs jutting from his normal sized frame; dark and sleepy eyes that stare right into your soul. Also his hair. And then there’s the way he seems to glide across the basketball court — especially in transition — just like a spider would across your ceiling, changing directions quickly and with purpose, those long arms seeming to be going one way while those long legs seem to be going another. You don’t know what he’s going to do…but he does. If I had to choose a word to describe his game, it’d be creepy, because spiders are just that: creepy.

I hate spiders. But I love what the Lakers have been doing with their basketball-playing spider over their last few games in starting Brandon Ingram as their point guard and handing him the keys to the offense.

Transition Player in a Halfcourt World

The Lakers have had three dynamic fastbreak playmakers. But after trading Larry Nance, Jr., and with Lonzo Ball sidelined with an injury, the last man standing is Brandon Ingram. Ingram is a blur in transition and causes a lot of issues for defenses with his speed up and down the court. Watch him here as he turns and pushes the ball up the court following the rebound. He pauses at the three-point arc, then before the defense can get set he splits the defense for a layup:

The Lakers like to push the tempo and play fast, just like in the above clip. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Lakers have begun 18.6% of their possessions with a transition play, second in the league only to the Golden State Warriors, and 36% of their rebounds have led to a transition play, also good for second behind the Warriors. Unlike the Warriors, however, the Lakers haven’t converted those transition opportunities into points very efficiently, ranking 23rd in points scored per 100 transition plays. And as bad as they have been in transition, they’ve been even worse in the halfcourt, ranking 28th in points scored per 100 halfcourt plays and only a fraction of a point better than the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns.

Brandon Ingram has a lot to do with this. The Lakers have had a tough time getting him good looks in the half court this season. Per NBA Stats, he ranks in the 39th percentile in points per play in isolation plays, 35th percentile in the pick-and-roll, and the 12th percentile on plays in which he comes off of a screen. He has been decent in the post on limited possessions and solid when spotting up, but where he has been the most successful is driving to the basket.

A lot of Ingram’s struggles have had to do with playing alongside Lonzo Ball, who has also struggled in the halfcourt. But a lot is also just Ingram himself and the way he has been used. Take the below clip, for example:

After inbounding the ball, Ingram jogs straight to the right corner where he stands until Kentavious Caldwell-Pope comes off a screen to shoot, at which point Ingram begins jogging back onto defense. Here’s another example:

After passing the ball to Lonzo, Ingram stands almost exactly in that same spot. He’s not a threat standing still on the weak side of the court. The Warriors recognize this and are able to dramatically help off of Ingram as well as easily snuff out the hammer action between him and Lonzo on the backside of the play.

Make no mistake, part of this is the play itself. A lot of the Lakers plays early in the season had Ingram standing on the weak side of the floor, uninvolved and unengaged. Often times there seemed to be no purpose in his positioning and movements, reminding me more like an annoying fly than that creepy spider.

The Turning Point

After a rough stretch in December and early January during which the Lakers lost 12 of 13 games including nine straight, the Lakers look like a completely different team. They have won 12 of their last 17 games and Brandon Ingram, in particular, has looked like a different player with Luke Walton putting him in positions to make plays driving to the basket. Here is an example from their win over the Spurs back in January:

Ingram misses the shot here, but the drive draws the attention of three Spurs. He misses Lonzo in the corner and elects to take a contested shot instead, but this is what Ingram can do to a defense. Here’s another play a few minutes later:

Again, the shot doesn’t fall, but Patty Mills has to respect Ingram on the drive, opening the door for a Lonzo three.

The Evolution of Point Ingram

Luke Walton has doubled down on getting Ingram more involved in the offense by simply handing him the keys to it and letting him run the point. This puts defenses in a tough spot as most guards aren’t big enough to check the 6’9″ beanpole while a lot of forwards aren’t quick enough. Here’s Doug McDermott showing you what I mean:

McDermott goes over the screen and Ingram blows right past him for the layup. But if you switch on the pick-and-roll as Wes Matthews and Dirk do here, Ingram is capable of pulling up when the defense now respects his driving ability:

And if the defense just collapses on Ingram as the Thunder do here? Well, he has an answer for that too:

What the Lakers are doing, in a sense, is “simulating” transition opportunities while in the halfcourt. That dribble handoff gives Ingram a full head of steam to do what he does best rather than force him to utilize skills that he just hasn’t developed yet.

With the arrival of Isaiah Thomas and the looming return of Lonzo Ball, I don’t think Point Ingram is going to be a long-term feature for the Lakers. But Walton has shown the willingness to get creative in order to get Ingram going in the halfcourt, and I think he’ll continue to do so. As always, we’ll have to wait and see what happens when Lonzo returns after the All-Star break. But for now, Point Ingram is back to using those creepy spider-like movements, gliding across the court and making big plays to help his team win.

I hate spiders, but Brandon Ingram has been fun to watch.