third-highest mark in the league<\/a> among players with 50-plus games, behind only Khris Middleton and Chris Paul, and just ahead of the mid-range legend himself, DeMar DeRozan (24.9%). Those shots range from short mid-range (i.e. just outside the paint) to long twos, and as a three-level scorer, they\u2019re an important part of what makes Ingram a threat with the ball.<\/p>\nBut mid-range pull-ups will not solve all the Raptors\u2019 woes. They are dreadfully in need of some three-point juice, and while the return of a healthy Immanuel Quickley will help in that department, the Raptors might need Ingram to take threes at a higher clip than he\u2019s used to.<\/p>\n
Ingram only attempted 3.8 threes per game in that 2023-24 season, after attempting 3.6 the previous year; his percentages were a very solid 39% and 35.5% those seasons. Last year Ingram took a positive step (albeit with a small sample size) with 6.4 three-point attempts per game, hitting 37.4% of them. The Raptors\u2019 coaching staff will likely want him to match, if not exceed that number.<\/p>\n
With that being said, three-point shots are not the main appeal of Ingram\u2019s game. Raptors fans can look forward to watching Ingram use his length and a bevy of moves \u2014 stutter steps, up-and-unders, crossovers, spin moves \u2014\u00a0to attack defenses for mid-range looks, as well as to get into the interior.<\/p>\n
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Of course, this begs the question of how Ingram, who\u2019s great with the ball in his hands, will fit in an offense that seeks to thrive off ball movement and had the second-highest assist percentage of any team last year.<\/p>\n
Ingram\u2019s usage rate last year was 30.5, the league\u2019s 13th-highest mark. (The highest mark on the 2024-25 Raptors was RJ Barrett\u2019s 28.1 usage rate.) One area where fans have concerns is the idea that there isn\u2019t enough to go around for Ingram, Scottie Barnes and Barrett to all share the ball. Another concern is that Ingram will be a ball-stopper who disrupts the flow of the offense.<\/p>\n
As for the first concern: I would expect to see a fair bit of staggering, with two of Ingram, Barnes, Barrett and Immanuel Quickley on the floor basically at all times, but with all four of them sharing the floor at only the very beginning and end of halves.<\/p>\n
As for his reputation as a ball-stopper, Ingram has actually developed into an underrated playmaker, averaging more than 5 assists in each of the last 4 seasons.<\/p>\n
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\u201cObviously he\u2019s a lead scorer \u2014 we\u2019re gonna put him in situations where he can not just score, but play-make,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cI think that\u2019s one area of his games that a lot of times has been overlooked, is his willingness to pass the ball and make the right play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingram had 3.6 isolation possessions per game last season; the Raptors\u2019 team high was Scottie Barnes with 2.2. But Rajakovic said that Ingram will not only draw attention with his scoring chops, but that he believes Ingram will leverage that attention into opportunities for his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith his size and his scoring ability, he\u2019s gonna be attracting a lot of attention to him, and I believe that he\u2019s gonna be really good [at] finding his teammates and making the right play,\u201d Rajakovic said.<\/p>\n
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One facet of the game Ingram is not necessarily known for is the defensive end. But Ingram brought that up as a point of emphasis during media day, saying one of the first things he noticed after arriving in Toronto was \u201chow hard the guys played on the defensive end.\u201d (He also said he immediately noticed that Scotiabank Arena was packed night after night regardless of team performance, unlike New Orleans\u2019 Smoothie King Center.)<\/p>\n
\u201cComing here, I know Darko speaks a lot about defense, so he\u2019s gonna be on me a lot about the defensive end, and trying to make my game complete,\u201d Ingram said.<\/p>\n
The Raptors are not keeping any secrets about having an aggressive defense that picks teams up full-court and aims to force turnovers.<\/p>\n
Ingram received a vote of confidence from Jakob Poeltl during the veteran big man\u2019s media day press conference.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think what\u2019s really impressed me is how much he\u2019s bought into it,\u201d Poeltl said about Ingram.
\u201cHe\u2019s really dialed into our pressing, being-aggressive style of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poeltl expanded, saying that Ingram could be a natural fit for the Raptors\u2019 specific style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his greatest skill on defense is he\u2019s good at anticipating where the ball is going and using his length to be disruptive,\u201d Poeltl said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s something he\u2019s done a lot in his career, but I think he has the natural build and instincts for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time will tell what Ingram\u2019s defense looks like, and how his addition will impact the team\u2019s often muddy offense.<\/p>\n
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What we know already is that Ingram \u2014 a player who\u2019s made an All-Star Game and is ostensibly entering the prime of his career \u2014 is being added to the Raptors\u2019 lineup at the expense of no rotation players. If he can overcome durability concerns, and if he does mesh well with Barnes, Barrett, Quickley and Poeltl, and can effectively lead bench units with younger teammates, the Raptors could very well see themselves levelling up from last season\u2019s 30-win total.<\/p>\n
Of all the people eagerly awaiting Ingram\u2019s return to the court, the most excited might be, as you\u2019d expect, Ingram himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just excited to bring my skill level and make things easier for other guys \u2014 playmaking, scoring the basketball, defense, getting steals, going on the other end,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cJust having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors have been starved for offense. Brandon Ingram is here to help. The Raptors are coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,4441,6850,2596,10760,3213,3715,1399,2289,2039,150,6,478,470,76,681,1041,1373,1261,6834,680,476,3820,468,814],"class_list":{"0":"post-319268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brandon-ingram","10":"tag-bruce-brown","11":"tag-chris-paul","12":"tag-darko-rajakovic","13":"tag-demar-derozan","14":"tag-immanuel-quickley","15":"tag-jakob-poeltl","16":"tag-kelly-olynyk","17":"tag-khris-middleton","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-orleans","21":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","22":"tag-orlando-magic","23":"tag-raptors","24":"tag-rj-barrett","25":"tag-rudy-gay","26":"tag-scottie-barnes","27":"tag-the-raptors","28":"tag-toronto","29":"tag-toronto-raptors","30":"tag-torontoraptors","31":"tag-washington-wizards","32":"tag-zion-williamson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115310509685712734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}