NBA Daily: The Untimeliness of Brandon Ingram’s Condition

The hits just keep on coming for the Lakers.

Seriously, it’s getting to the point where you wonder, how could it possibly get any worse? The Lakers definitely had holes in their roster, but what’s happened this season was the absolute worst-case scenario. It would take a miracle for them to make the playoffs now, and LeBron James isn’t getting any younger.

Of all that has blown up in their face this season, Brandon Ingram’s season-ending blood clot may have the been worst bombshell of them all.

For those of you who have been out of the loop, Ingram will miss the remainder of the season after the Lakers’ medical team diagnosed him with “Deep Venous Thrombosis” – a blood clot that was found in his arm.

Before we dive into what Ingram’s diagnosis means for the Lakers, everyone should wish him all the best in his recovery. Nobody deserves to have their season end so prematurely, especially on a medical condition that he could not have seen coming. We have to remember that these professional basketball players are still people.

Whether you root for or against Brandon Ingram on the court, you should root for him to have a long and prosperous career. Hopefully, this issue is only a one-time thing for him.

Now, let’s focus on what this means for the Lakeshow. Let’s start with the lesser of their worries.

The Rest of the Season

Ingram’s tragic news removed the last lingering string that was the Lakers’ playoff hopes. Then again, the playoffs were already pretty much out of the discussion. Los Angeles is currently 7.5 games back of the eighth seed in the west and has the 12th toughest schedule in the league according to Tankathon.

That schedule includes games against the Warriors, Bucks, Raptors and Thunder among other teams. All of whom are still fighting for playoff position. Even while having a miracle worker in LeBron James, they didn’t have much reason to be optimistic given their internal troubles.

So, the Lakers were all but eliminated from the playoffs with or without Ingram. They still could have experimented to see what lineups could have worked with Ingram.

That may sound confusing but think of it like this. Since the All-Star break ended, we’ve seen some of the worst teams in the league play either their best basketball of the season or give encouraging signs for next season. The lottery reform affords them to do so even though they’re already out of playoff contention.

Phoenix has won five of its last seven games, with two of them coming against Milwaukee and Golden State. Chicago has played around .500 basketball, with its most recent win coming against Philadelphia. Atlanta hasn’t played all that great, but Trae Young and John Collins are playing their best basketball of the season.

For all that’s gone wrong, the Lakers could have at least tried to see what would work in preparation for next year to see who should stay and who should go. Ingram was putting up some of the best numbers of his career before going down for the season. The Lakers weren’t playing well despite his improvement and having LeBron, but there was still enough games left to get out of their funk and take note for next season with Ingram.

Of course, that is if he’s still on the team next season, which leads to the next point.

Re-entering Anthony Davis trade discussions

This summer, New Orleans will inevitably re-enter trade discussions centered around Anthony Davis. Any belief that he’ll stay a Pelican past this season is noble, albeit vain.

So, the Lakers, aka the team that Davis was tied to the most when he made his trade request a few weeks ago, are most definitely going to try again to bid for Davis’ services and for good reason.

It’s quite evident that this current Lakers squad doesn’t mesh around LeBron James. With Father Time rearing its ugly head, he needs stars who more of a proven variety now more than ever. Who better to help him out than Anthony Davis?

If a trade were to happen between the Pelicans and the Lakers, New Orleans would have to be off its rocker to not want Ingram as one of its returning pieces because he was playing fantastic in LA from mid-January to before his season was cut short.

From Jan. 19 to March 2, Ingram started living up to his billing as a No. 2 pick, averaging 22.5 points on 55.8 percent shooting and 40.6 percent from three. Ingram was also averaging 5.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists, making him the all-around threat he was projected to be when he entered the league.

Before that stretch, many believed that the Boston Celtics’ young hotshot Jayson Tatum had more value than Ingram, which would give Boston the inside track if and when they entered the Anthony Davis sweepstakes. After Ingram’s breakout, it seemed the gap had closed. The most recent news about Ingram may have opened it again.

The timing of Ingram’s diagnosis could potentially throw a wrench into the Lakers’ plans to trade for Davis because blood clots are a legitimate risk in a professional athlete’s career.

Chris Bosh and Mirza Teletovic are the most glaring examples of the worst-case scenario with blood clots. Both suffered recurring blood clots which led to pulmonary embolisms in their lungs. Because continuing to play was a potentially fatal risk, both were forced into early retirement.

There is a reason for optimism. Anderson Varejao had a blood clot in his lungs and never had one again. Same goes for tennis legend Serena Williams. Both of them turned out just fine and the same could – and hopefully will – happen to Brandon.

It’s not just the blood clot itself that’s the problem. It’s the recency. Because this happened just last week, it may hurt Ingram’s trade value to the Pelicans because of the risk of this becoming a recurring thing for Brandon. If New Orleans likes him enough to take that chance, then all the power to them, but they may want to look at other young prospects who presently don’t have the same risk.

That makes it harder to see New Orleans making a trade with LA, which removes one of what looks like a short list of options of star players the Lakers can surround LeBron with.

The irony to all of this is that as the Lakers’ season draws nearer to its anticlimactic end, there’s so much blame to go around. Yet with this particular bad break, there’s no one to blame here other than bad timing.

No matter how things turn out either this season or this summer, there’s one thing we all as a community can definitely request from this.

Get well soon, Brandon!