Looking beyond the stars with Harrison Ingram
The former five-star recruit has revived his draft stock in his third collegiate season, now with the Tar Heels. While he may not be seen as a star anymore, he still impacts the game at a high level.
Sometimes, in the scouting world, it can be easy to get caught obsessing over the newest “thing.” The newest name, archetype, team of interest, or trend that catches our eyes as scouts, shifting our focus from the older “things” blossoming right under our noses.
Expectations play a huge role in this lack of object permanence from scouts. In the one-and-done era, we’re so used to seeing players come in and exceed all expectations right away, that when the ideal is not achieved immediately, all sense of it is lost.
Harrison Ingram came into his freshman season with Stanford having garnered some pretty remarkable expectations. He was a five-star, a McDonald’s All-American, a projected first-round pick, and the next Draymond Green. A bulky, undersized forward with a mind for the game on both sides of the ball that would certainly come in and be able to wreck games similarly to the four-time All-Defensive first-team selectee.
Ingram’s first season of college basketball quickly turned into a second with Stanford as he struggled to adapt to the pace of collegiate play. His biggest knock coming out of high school was his athletic profile. While lanky and strong for a traditionally undersized four, he wasn’t particularly explosive in any regard, never being able to jump out of the gym or cover massive amounts of ground defensively. In turn, he struggled with both turnovers and efficiency greatly, as Stanford went a combined 30-35 in his tenure.
When Ingram announced he would be transferring on April 4, 2023, it took less than weeks for him to announce he was taking his talents to North Carolina, joining a talented squad filled with tenured veterans as a penciled-in starter.
Since finding empowerment in this new situation, playing for one of college basketball’s most storied programs, Ingram has thrived. He’s breathed new life into his stock, forcing scouts to take their eyes off the shiny new diamond and back onto the one they left in the dust.
Ingram is far from perfect, but his wild improvement shows exactly why you never sell your stock on the prospects you believe in, no matter how long it takes them to find their footing or role.
The biggest difference in terms of Ingram’s usage from Stanford to North Carolina is his volume as a pick-and-roll ball handler. After running pick and roll for the Cardinal on an absurd 550 possessions, Ingram sits at only 19 through 22 games with the Tar Heels.
It’s been an addition to his game by being a subtraction to his role. Ingram, while a talented and heady playmaker, has had the best and most productive year of his career on his lowest usage. It’s no surprise that he’s walked into much more of a glue role on this North Carolina team with its bevy of tenured stars, and it’s no surprise that he’s thriving in that role.
That being said, the volume could stand an increase. North Carolina doesn’t run a ton of pick and rolls to begin with, but essentially keeping Ingram from playing any kind of ball-handler role in the offense is a bit limiting for him.
Off the dribble, Ingram plays at a slow but steady pace, utilizing his strength and mind over a blazing first step. Ingram has long strides and great deceleration, but his zero-to-60 is relatively lackluster keeping his ceiling relatively capped as a scorer or primary ball handler in these settings.
He loves to operate in the four-five pick and roll, playing jumbo point guard, but there could be some untapped pick and roll in inverted pick and roll actions, acting as a lockpick for his smaller playmakers’ ability to attack speed mismatches.
While Ingram’s lack of empowerment in the pick and roll has helped him achieve career highs across the board this season, it’s something that could be exploited to a higher degree with more creativity. On the other hand; however, the Tar Heels have allowed him to be excellent as a post-hub in the middle of the floor.
Ingram’s vision isn’t something that we’ve given enough credit to yet, and it’s fully unlocked when he’s allowed to play in the middle of the floor. When utilized in post-up scenarios as either a passer or scorer, Ingram is scoring an elite 1.104 points per possession, just a shade under the mark the NBA’s best centers have posted this season (albeit on a much lower volume).
One little thing Ingram excels at as a passer out of the post is passing the ball out of his dribble. When you pick up in the middle of the floor, defenses are encouraged to send aggressive help defense, trapping you around the baseline and giving very little opening for an outlet. When you’re able to fire a quick, on-target, one-handed pass you can often catch the defense frozen, waiting to commit off their man but not ready to double.
Ingram loves posting up in semi-transition, sealing off a smaller or skinnier player before they can recover to their man. It’s a great way to hunt mismatches, and Ingram excels at exploiting them. Similarly, he’ll hunt these mismatches out of the pick and roll, forcing switches on ball screens and immediately going to seal off his new man.
As far as scoring arsenal goes, Ingram flashes a bit of a face-up game, but he loves to back down with a couple of power dribbles and turn over his inside shoulder for a little hook shot. Alternatively, he’s flashed a turn-around jump shot that’s gone in at a good rate this season. He has a couple of pivot moves too, carving out space with his body to rise up for a clean shot.
More on Ingram as a playmaker, while assists and usage are both down from his two years with Stanford, there’s a clear air of extra comfortability that he showcases in his new setting. Ingram was never meant to be the focal point of an offense. Since scaling down and playing alongside a handful of talented on-ball players, he’s thrived in a connective tissue role, allowing the offense to flow through him rather than rely on him.
He’s excellent at not holding onto the ball too long, which feels like it shouldn’t be deserving of much praise, but decision-making doesn’t come easy to every player in the course of a game. Being able to keep the ball moving either with a swing or a redirect when your initial scoring attempt is stopped is a key trait for players to find minutes at the next level, and Ingram possesses it.
Another key trait of all players, especially those who aren’t offensive catalysts, is shooting, and that happens to be the biggest question with Ingram on that end: shooting. Coming into this season, Ingram was widely known as a below-average shooter. His volume was low, his percentage hovered around 31%, and his free throw shooting was hard to look at.
While that last point has stood, and Ingram is shooting just 56.9% from the free throw line with the Tar Heels, the three-point shooting has risen exponentially. Ingram is currently shooting 42.3% from three on more volume than he’s seen previously, up from 3.5 three-point attempts per game with Stanford to 4.5 three-point attempts per game with North Carolina.
Despite this massive jump, there’s a lot of questions regarding the legitimacy of it. It’s not as if Ingram’s overhauled his shot or his other indicators have improved dramatically; he’s just better.
Ingram’s shooting profile on Synergy is marked with “Excellent” on just about every type of jump shot on the floor. He’s in the 92nd percentile on all jump shots, the 91st percentile in the catch-and-shoot, but just the 47th percentile on dribble jumpers. Perhaps this jump in productivity is being overthought. However, the vast discrepancy in these different types of shots tells a story.
Ingram may be reliable standing completely still on his shots, and those are most of his three-point attempts, but his lack of consistency on his off-the-dribble attempts says a lot about his shot versatility as a whole.
The free throw is the most isolated shot in basketball. There are no interfering factors other than crowd noise, and the shot comes from the same spot, in the same rhythm every single time. The greatest shooters are the greatest free-throw shooters. Stephen Curry, Steve Nash, Kevin Durant, Larry Bird, etc.: all were excellent shooters from the free-throw line because they’d mastered their shot mechanics to the extent that they shoot it the same on every repetition and get the same result.
As previously mentioned, Ingram hasn’t ever been a great free throw shooter, and that’s seemingly the one thing that hasn’t changed since coming to North Carolina. Ingram’s mechanics look good on the surface, but there are a couple of small points that help to reason why the majority of his misses are short.
Firstly, and most obviously, there’s a clear backward arch in his back on his shot, leaning his shoulders back as he comes up with the ball. Then, there’s his hands. His shooting wrist is loaded dramatically and inflexibly, while his guide hand sits in front of the ball.
The issue with both hands makes it difficult for Ingram to get into his shot in different settings. The atypical grip he has on the ball makes standard pickups into an off-the-dribble shot more difficult and leads to a less consistent transfer of energy from top to bottom.
There are distinct shortcomings with Ingram as a shooter, and while growth would be ideal, perhaps he’s not far off from where he needs to be to get impactful minutes at the next level. If he can hit those standstill shots at a similar rate to what he’s shooting on them right now, it won’t be hard to picture Ingram on an NBA court providing value early on.
One area where Ingram will likely have an immediate impact is on the defensive end. He’s a strong forward with long arms, great hands, and surprisingly quick feet. While he doesn’t rack up steals or blocks at an elite rate, he’s incredibly active and just smart on that end of the floor.
The ideology that half the battle on the defensive end of the floor is effort has become a bit of a cliché in basketball discourse, but there is some truth to it. Of course, there is a level of skill that is required to be a high-level impactor. You need great anticipation, world-breaking tools, and the ability to perceive the floor from a near-omniscient perspective.
Ingram isn’t the toolsiest player, and that often impacts his ability to make plays in those other two regards. However, he more than makes up for it with his effort. Ingram is constantly rotating, switching, and getting his hands in places offensive players don’t want them to be. He’s not a stalwart, but a pest, and a pest that sets the foundation for his whole team’s energy.
Quantifying a player’s capabilities as a “glue guy” would be impossible. It’s not a tangible skill like shooting or passing in that regard, but it’s something that you can see. Who’s yelling? Who’s running to pick up their teammates after a foul? Who’s celebrating on the bench or the court after a huge play? When it comes to North Carolina, the answer to that is Harrison Ingram.
He hasn’t lived up to the comparisons or expectations he garnered out of high school, but that’s not to say he’s a failure or a bust. His resiliency, improvement, and adaptability throughout his already tumultuous career have proved that he’s a player that is going to stick. His stats or tools may not pop off the page, but he’s going to be wanted in a locker room and impactful on the court, and in the NBA, that gets you most of the way there.
Just coming back to read this. This dude is legit for sure, so underrated.