Brandon Ingram has now been a Spur for eight seasons, joining this dynastic reign midway in exchange for Kawhi Leonard that now feels like so long ago, earning Most Improved Player honors in just his third season as a Spur, coming THIS close to edging out his teammate, Andre Drummond, for MVP. While it would have been a first-time in NBA history for Ingram to win both awards, Drummond instead joined the illustrious company of Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon & Giannis Antetokounmpo. To read more details of that season, check out this article: https://goldencompassed.blogspot.com/2020/06/spurs-finish-season-77-5-set-new-team.html. Ingram would go on to win Finals MVP for three seasons in a row (Years 10-12), only to be outdone by teammate, Dejounte Murray, later who's now won it four times, along with his own MVP award in Year 14. This trio of massive talent has now won five titles together, with Ingram & Murray winning seven as a duo before Drummond joined the western conference powerhouse. But the haunting question remains: Will Brandon Ingram ever win his own MVP award as a Spur?
"All the credit goes to my teammates," Ingram told Allie LaForce of NBA on TNT after a tremendous performance, a career-high 70 point effort by the Slender-Man, or Kingram as he's known to his hardwood brotherhood. Brandon is known for a fierce work ethic in the gym, constantly putting in work to improve his game. Soon after, in the Spurs' toughest win streak defense yet, B.I. splashed in a game-tying 3PT shot from the corner after the Miami Heat had pulled off one of their trademark 4th Quarter rallies at home, nearly shocking their Finals foe of old and putting a 1 after the 25-, but instead due to Ingram's heroic clutch gene, the Spurs improved to 26-0 on the season after recuperating well in OverTime. "I'm just focusing on my game every day [and] trying to win us another 'chip."
Brandon is also sporting a new look so far this season, letting his natural afro add some inches to rival Victor Wenbenyama's height (/s). When asked why he switched it up from his familiar cornrow hairstyle, Ingram said: "I ain’t messing with my hair. I’m tired of sitting down." And one can clearly tell that B.I. hasn't been sedentary often over the summer or since the season got underway with his production so far, as twenty-six games are now behind the Spurs. Ingram is humbly flexing a stat line of 29.2 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game, 2.7 assists per game, .8 steals per game, .3 blocks per game & .8 turnovers per game on 57% field goal percentage, a stunning 53% on 3PT attempts and 79% from the free throw line with a +/- of 21.7 & a PER of 36.1 (behind only Murray, which could factor into his odds to win the award). Murray & Ingram both have the highest PER ranking with other
candidate, Luka Doncic, sitting at a 30.6 mark, with Nikola Jokic just
behind at 30.3 and 2x MVP, Andre Drummond, lurking at 29.9. If we're only looking at +/- though, Ingram is #1 in the entire league which perhaps evens out any favor to Dejounte, with Drummond right behind the two. Not far behind the star trio is first-year Spur, Dillon Brooks, Kawhi Leonard, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler & Paul George. To his credit, Dejounte is the only Spur this season to earn a triple-double.
Lastly, it also serves as more motivation perhaps that Ingram is on the last year of his then-max salary extension, eligible for quite the salary increase again should he sign this new extension early or wait until the summer. As of now, Ingram is neutral on the matter, but having that elusive MVP award on his shelf surely wouldn't hurt when final negotiations would officially kick off once this season is done. However, as the Spurs focus on winning games and building momentum toward a 16th championship, the official MVP race reports have as of yet not been released.
