NBA Trade Rumors: Should the Los Angeles Lakers Be Open to Moving Brandon Ingram?
The Lakers took Ingram with the second overall pick in the 2016 draft
Losing is not in the Los Angeles Lakers' DNA, but in recent years, they've had to take their share of those tough outcomes.
Brighter days are ahead for the franchise, especially now that they have a young core group in place and enough cap space to bring in more talented players.
The Lakers may not be content with just marginal improvement from this season to the next, however, as they could be open to making a blockbuster deal that speeds up their competitive timeline even if it means losing some of their young stars.
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In a recent article, The Los Angeles Times' Tania Ganguli passed along some information from anonymous sources who revealed that the Lakers do not consider any of their young players to be untouchable in trades.
The Lakers are said to even be open to the idea of trading one of their bright young stars, including 2017 draftees Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart as well as the player they took with the second overall pick in 2016, Brandon Ingram.
Ganguli did note in the article that the Lakers would have to be blown away by a trade offer to consider moving a member of their core four. Furthermore, the franchise is said not to be offering any of them via a trade at this point in time.
Still, it sure sounds like the Lakers are willing to listen to trade offers for their good young players.
But is it right for the franchise to have that mindset, particularly when it comes to Ingram?
It's easy to understand the Lakers' desire to return to contention as quickly as possible, but Ingram is not the type of player who should be placed on the trading block without that much thought.
As the numbers on his Basketball Reference page indicate, Ingram improved in almost every way during his sophomore season. Ingram significantly upped his scoring this past season, and he did so by shooting more while also improving his efficiency.
Ingram is also taking a bigger share of the playmaking duties, and he is learning to use his length to his advantage when he is playing defense.
He's also just 20 years old, meaning that he has plenty of time left to tap into his currently unrealized potential.
Ingram has all the tools needed to be a superstar in this modern iteration of the NBA and all he really needs to is put things together. That's easier said than done, of course, but Ingram's got a real shot at being one of the best players in the league and that cannot be said for the majority of young players.
The Lakers should and will likely pursue every opportunity to improve this offseason, but perhaps trading Ingram is something they should be a bit more hesitant to do.
Players with the kind of star potential he possesses don't come around very often, and that makes him an incredibly valuable player.
The Lakers may not consider their young players untouchable in trades, but that does not mean that they do not have an emerging star already on the roster.
