Pros and Cons to Drafting Brandon Ingram

The Philadelphia 76ers have a choice with the top overall draft pick. Should they draft Brandon Ingram with it?

The Philadelphia 76ers won the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night and I still cannot believe it.  To most, if not all 76ers fans, this draft was Brandon Ingram, Ben Simmons, or bust. After the events from last night, the 76ers will have the luxury of being able to pick which one they want. No prospect is flawless and there are pros and cons to drafting any player. This post will detail the pros and cons of drafting Brandon Ingram with the top overall pick.

Pros/Strengths:

• Fits (on paper) with the current cornerstones of the team in Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and Dario Saric. This is a very important thing the 76ers need to consider. Drafting Ingram would most likely help boost the team and would not result in one of the other great pieces getting traded or subtracted from the squad.
• Brings potentially elite shooting and spacing for the team which would elevate the play of Embiid and Okafor.
• With elite height and length, Ingram could bring lockdown defense to the wings in a couple years and would help stop the bleeding of letting other teams into the paint.
• If Ingram pans out like he is supposed to, the 76ers would be adding yet another elite scorer who would command double teams along with Okafor and Embiid (if they pan out as well). Having three guys you can throw it to and say, “go get a bucket” is a crazy luxury and not too many teams have that. Having three scoring threats like this would limit double teaming on any one guy and that plays into the 76ers favor because those three players would dominate one-on-one match-ups almost every game.
• Ingram is very young. He is almost 14 months younger than Ben Simmons. It is a well known fact that Simmons had a better statistical year in college last season but if you compared Ben Simmons today to what Ingram could be 14 months from now who’d be the better player and who’d put up better stats? This is a very important thing the scouting staff should look at and this is a very strong “pro” for Ingram.
• Has shown no signs of character issues.
• Very unselfish for someone known as a scorer and has better ball handling skills than given credit for.

Cons/Weaknesses:

• While his height and length are elite, his strength is way below average. Ingram will not be a superstar at the next level if he does not add some muscle
• Has been shown to have have trouble getting to the rim at times and when he does he occasionally shies away from contact.
• While he has the tools to win a Defensive Player of The Year Award down the road, he is nowhere near that right now. Having the tools to do something and actually doing it are two different things. Ingram needs to be more alert and consistent on defense.

Overall:

Overall Ingram is a great prospect and his pros very much outweigh his cons. When evaluating a prospect you should not just look at their weaknesses, but you should really be looking at if they can improve those weaknesses and how likely they are to improve them. What makes Ingram great is that his weaknesses are very likely to improve and can be easily improved.

The 76ers fitness and health staff is one of the best in the league so I’m sure if they got their hands on Ingram they’d whip his body into shape in no time. Adding muscle will unlock his full potential and his ceiling as a two-way superstar.

Next: It's a New Day For the Philadelphia 76ers

Effort and awareness can also be improved with coaching and game tape and knowing Coach Brett Brown he will not give you minutes if you don’t work hard. I think Coach Brown can get anybody including Ingram to play harder than they ever did before. All in all, the 76ers can’t go wrong in picking Brandon Ingram.