Now that we’re in the middle of the Pac-12 basketball season, I thought it would be fun to evaluate Stanford freshman Harrison Ingram as an NBA prospect based on his performance to date. The purpose of this is to evaluate his strengths, weaknesses, and overall NBA draft outlook. Given that this is a midseason evaluation, things could of course change when the season is over.
Strengths: Harrison Ingram has good size for an NBA wing at 6’8”, 230 pounds. Just watching him play, he passes the eye test. He looks an NBA prospect when he’s on the floor purely from a physical standpoint. Very strong and physically developed. Ingram is also a very skilled player. He’s averaging 11.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 0.9 steals per game on 39.9% shooting from the field, 31.0% shooting from 3-point range, and 73.3% shooting from the foul line. He can score inside, outside, can bring the ball up the floor and create for his teammates as a point forward, and he’s also a pretty reliable foul shooter.
For a college freshman, he’s very polished and very NBA ready in that sense. Some guys need more fine tuning of their games, whereas Ingram, while of course having things to improve on, is much closer to a finished product. This makes it easier to see what he is and what he’s going to be.
In addition to being very skilled, Ingram has a really good feel for the game. Very cerebral player. He has a high IQ and rarely makes mental errors. He's a natural leader on the floor and is very mature for his age. Ingram also has shown an ability to take over games in stretches and plays well in clutch situations. He has no fear taking a game winning shot, going to the foul line to win the game, etc. Stanford has won a lot of close games this year and Ingram stepping up in crunch time is a major reason why.
Ingram is also a good teammate. He doesn’t need to have the spotlight on him and at times is perhaps too humble about his abilities. He’s a guy who should have no trouble adjusting to being a role player in the NBA and doing whatever is asked of him. He even came off the bench one game earlier in the season and handled that well. He has a winning personality and approach to the game.
Ingram is especially dangerous around the rim. He has a variety of moves around the basket and uses his body well to seal off opponents and finish strong inside. He knows how to finish through contact and given his foul shooting, he’s not a guy who defenses want to send to the foul line.
Rebounding is also a major strength of Ingram’s. He attacks the glass really well and does a great job of rebounding in traffic. He wins a lot of rebounding battles and plays with a great motor whenever a shot goes up.
Defensively, Ingram is pretty alert. Does a great job of communicating with his teammates and knowing where to be. Due to his size, strength, and length, he has the ability to guard both wings and power forwards. He’s rather flexible defensively.
Weaknesses: While he does have good size for an NBA wing, Ingram isn’t the most explosive athlete. He doesn’t leap out of the gym like other prospects do. He’s more of a below the rim player. While his ability to play around the rim is a legitimate strength of his, it would be nice if he could get above the rim more and demonstrate the kind of explosiveness that other NBA wings have. This limits his upside.
Ingram also is very inconsistent in terms of his scoring production. Some nights he’s on fire and is clearly the best player on the floor. Other nights he’s quiet and takes more of a backseat role. He’s still figuring out how to be aggressive and assert his will on the game with more consistency.
While he can score in a variety of ways both inside and out, Ingram’s shooting percentages do need to improve. He isn’t a high volume shooter and rarely takes bad shots, so shot selection isn’t a major issue with him. It’s just about getting more confident in his stroke and more consistent in knocking down shots from the perimeter.
Overall outlook: It’s clear that Harrison Ingram is a legitimate NBA prospect and that there are some teams out there that would love to work with him and see what he can bring to their program. If he were to leave for the NBA after this season, based on what we’ve seen so far from him, I would say he’s a late first round selection at best and more likely an early-mid second round selection. What would raise his stock more than anything is if he can establish more consistency scoring. That seems to be the main reason why I can’t say with certainty that he'd be a first round pick in the upcoming draft.
This of course raises the question of whether or not Ingram should come back to Stanford for a sophomore season. I have two responses to that question. Number one: That’s a decision that ultimately Ingram has to make and it’s nobody else’s business but his own. Number two: If he does decide to come back for a sophomore season, the big upside of doing that would be a chance to improve his scoring consistency and also lead Stanford deeper in March than however far they go this year. Those are two things that could boost his draft stock in 2023 and firmly establish him as a first round selection.
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