Just before Sacramento Kings sent DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans, the Kings front office is reported to contact Lakers for forward Brandon Ingram, but Lakers turned down the offer.
However, Lakers did not want to trade Ingram according to Los Angeles Times, as the Lakers wanted to keep the young generation of Lakers in Ingram, D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle to mature with the team. Even though that will take longer than bringing in Cousins to the Staples Center.
In his rookie year, Ingram has showed a promising start to become a great NBA players. He averages 17.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and Lakers head coach Luke Walton trusted him as starting lineup for Lakers. He still needs to improve his consistencies to play the 82 games of the NBA regular season.
One of the main factor that made the Los Angeles Lakers management wanted to keep Ingram is also the history of failed high-profile trade that Lakers has committed before, CBS Sports reported. In 2012, Lakers brought in center Dwight Howard and point guard Steve Nash in an attempt to pair the two All-Star player with Kobe Bryant. However, the expectation did not materialize as the players could not adapt to the Lakers system of play.
For that reason, Lakers wanted to keep Ingram, Russel and Randle to build the next generation of Lakers. That is also the vision of coach Walton when he was hired in April last year.
Ingram had an amazing record in his high school years with Kinston in North Carolina. He is the first and only player who has ever won North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NHSAA) championships for four times. However, he chose to go to Duke instead of the North Carolina after graduated from high school. He played for one year with the Duke Blue Devils before announcing his eligibility for 2016 NBA Draft.
He was selected second overall by Lakers after the Sixers picked Ben Simmons as the first pick. Simmons and Ingram has been compared to each other. Watch one of the video regarding Ingram and Simmons and who is better between the two below:
