Draft Film School: Harrison Ingram
In this installment of Draft Film School we check in on Stanford Freshman Harrison Ingram. Does all the things Ingram excels at on the court outweigh the athleticism concerns? That's the main question
In today’s installment of Draft Film School, we will be focusing on Harrison Ingram, the 6’8” 230lbs forward from Stanford. Fun Fact: Harrison Ingram was a 5-star recruit, McDonald’s All-American, AND his parents own 17 McDonald’s Franchises. Through 10 games Ingram has been one of the best freshman in the Pac-12, averaging 12.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on 41.7 FG%/31.6 3FG%/81.3 FT% splits. Not built like your traditional 18 year old coming into college, Ingram is already strong enough to play at the next level. He’s a gifted shooter and playmaker with great feel for the game, but the athleticism ultimately limits him a bit on both ends.
Okay enough with introduction, let’s get to the good stuff, I know you’re all just here for the clips.
Scoring
Spot Up Shooting
Let’s start off with ultimately what I think his role in the NBA will be, an off-ball threat on offense. He should provide immediate value as a floor spacing forward. Through 10 games he is in the 69th percentile on C&S jumpers, making 39.1% of them in the half court, per Synergy. Now the numbers are drastically different when you dive into Guarded (25% on 12 attempts) and Unguarded (54.5% on 11 attempts), but I still buy him as being a solid off-ball shooter overall. Here is one of the more impressive C&S clips:
He’s able to catch the ball while on the move and shows great footwork to get his feet set behind the 3pt line and knock down a must have shot against Dartmouth with under a minute to go.
Pull Up Shooting
Unfortunately, when asked to create his own shot, the numbers aren’t as pretty. Through 10 games this season he ranks in just the 6th percentile (0.35 PPP) and shooting 15% on all jumpers off the dribble in the halfcourt, via Synergy. He is already a good passer (more on that later) but in order to keep defenses honest he needs to at least be some sort of a pull up threat.
In this first clip the defender feels comfortable to just go under on Ingram and he ends up getting a good look but can’t knock down the pull up.
Another example where his defender gets caught on the screen and he gets another clean look but can’t knock down the step back. He really needs to knock these down at a respectable rate if he is ever to become an on-ball threat (and it’s okay not to be!).
Post-Up Game
Stanford really likes to play out of the post and so does Ingram. Close to 20% of his shot attempts in the half court come out of the post. However, he is inefficient at them, ranking in the 18th percentile. Ingram doesn’t lack the strength as he is able to get good position and back his man down under the basket but once he’s there he struggles to finish and a lot of it comes down to his lack of verticality. This leads to him getting blocked way more than he should:
Slashing
Ingram’s lack of athleticism also shows up when slashing. Most of the time he either defaults into the post or ends up taking a mid-range fade. Some of this is definitely a spacing issue, so maybe he can improve a little bit with NBA spacing but I wouldn’t bet on it. The clip above and below highlight the issues Ingram runs into when trying to attack the basket:
Playmaking
This is what sets Ingram apart from some traditional “3&D” prospects. He has such great feel and vision that allows him to find open teammates in a variety of situations. We’ll dive into each below.
PNR Passing
I really hope that Ingram gets the chance to run some PNRs at the next level. As a PNR scorer, Ingram ranks in the 16th Percentile, per Synergy. However, as a passer out of PNR he ranks in the 68th percentile. This matches up with the eye test as he does a good job making reads, especially to the roll man.
This clip highlights all the good things Ingram brings as a PNR passer. This seems to be a Spain PNR set that isn’t the smoothest but Ingram shows the patience to let it play out. The defense switches the first screen so Ingram goes back and attacks his original defender (who is now guarding the first screener). Once that defender steps up to stop the ball, he uses some slight manipulation looking back to Spencer Jones which causes the help to creep up and leaves the big wide open. Really fun set.
Post Passing
I don’t have any fancy stats to back this up, but Ingram is a tremendous passer out of the post. Similar to how he struggles to score out of PNR but is a great passer, he struggles to score in the post but is a great passer out of it.
Here he places a nice drop off pass once the help rotates over.
And here he is hitting a cutting teammate.
This read is a little more complex as Jabari Walker (#12 on Colorado) is responsible for the man in the corner and once Ingram sees him sag off in the paint he whips the pass to the corner for the open 3.
Defense
POA Defense
Let’s start off with an area that needs improvement: close outs. As of now, Ingram is not good enough closing out on shooters. He repeatedly gets beat off the dribble and I think it’s an angle and balance issue vs a straight up lateral movement issue.
On the first closeout he takes a really bad angle and guards too high up the passing lane. Instead of funneling the opponent into the middle of the floor where there is help, he leaves the baseline wide open for a drive. The ball eventually gets whipped around and Ingram has to close out again and this time he runs out too hard and is thrown off-balance and gets beat off the dribble quite easily leading to a wide open corner 3 attempt.
However, in situations where Ingram is guarding in isolation or PNR, he is quite good. Showing that he can move his feet and stay with guys laterally. While the vertical athleticism is a major issue, his lateral movement is actually pretty decent when guarding on the perimeter. One of my favorite defensive sequences from his below encapsulates this:
Stuck on an island with Will Richardson who is a fringe NBA prospect, Ingram is able to slide with Richardson and stop him in his tracks and force a pass out. It doesn’t end there as Ingram does a great job playing the passing lanes off-ball to get the steal and finds Jaiden Delaire in transition for the layup.
Off-Ball Defense
Overall I think Harrison Ingram is a positive team defender. He has shown the ability to read offenses and provide well timed rotations which is impressive for how young he is.
In this first example he does a great job keeping eyes on his man and the ball. He is fully turned around but sees the ball-handler driving to the basket and is able to rotate over for the contest. The layup goes in but this was still good defense.
In this clip, Ingram is in a great position between his man and the roller. He is ready so that when the pass to the roller comes he can rotate and help contest the shot at the rim. Again, the layup goes in but it's still good process. This clip unfortunately also highlights the vertical limitations I’ve mentioned before because you’d like to see this shot get blocked.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Harrison Ingram is not going to do anything on the court that makes your jaw drop but he has great feel and instincts that help him make up for the lack of athleticism. I don’t know where he’ll get drafted or where I’ll have him ranked by the end of the year but at this point I think he warrants a look in the 25-35 range.