Brandon Ingram was not one of the original 24 NBA All-Stars this season, and while fans of the Toronto Raptors thought he was snubbed, the reality is that he probably didn't deserve it. Now NBA commissioner Adam Silver has named Ingram as an injury replacement to the All-Star Game, another honor he probably didn't deserve -- but for a few different reasons, he made the cut.
It is Ingram's second trip to the All-Star Game after making it in 2019-20 with the New Orleans Pelicans. Few players make the game in their fourth season and then not again until their 10th, but that's the path that Ingram has walked through injuries and inconsistency over the last six years.
This season, Ingram is scoring 22 points per game, hitting 36.4 percent of his 3-pointers and chipping in 5.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists. No one would call him the Raptors' best player, but he is scoring and playing nearly every game for a team that is 32-22 and in 5th-place in the Eastern Conference. That generated some All-Star buzz over the past few weeks.
Yet in the end, he wasn't even the most egregious snub when the rosters were announced. The NBA has a new format this year, which we will get to in a moment, but they still start with 12 players from each conference. The Eastern Conference All-Stars included Scottie Barnes representing the Raptors -- a player having a significantly better two-way season than Ingram -- but not Ingram himself.
Injuries to a number of All-Stars has led to additional players making the rosters. Kawhi Leonard replaced Giannis Antetokounmpo, while Alperen Sengun replaced Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. When Stephen Curry made it clear he would be missing the All-Star Game, Adam Silver got to name another player to the team. He chose Brandon ingram.
Why did Brandon Ingram make the All-Star Team?
Why, exactly, did he choose Ingram? That is a difficult question to ask. Unlike Leonard or even Sengun, he did not have an obvious case. His statistical case is not dominant, nor is he an advanced metric darling. His totals are lofty because he has been mostly healthy this season, which is likely a key piece to his selection.
Another key reason, however, is the NBA's new rules. The All-Star Game is going to be played by three teams of eight players, with one the "international team" and the other two "American" players. Replacing Curry meant putting another American on the team.
That meant Joel Embiid was no longer an option. Franz Wagner was off the table. Lauri Markkanen was out of the running. Dillon Brooks of the Phoenix Suns and Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves were out. You can debate whether any or all of them deserved a spot over Ingram, but they weren't a part of the equation.
Ingram ended up beating out the likes of James Harden, Evan Mobley and Michael Porter Jr. for the team. MPJ and Mobley being passed over made sense because they are currently battling injuries; the commissioner isn't going to replace one injured player with another who may not be able to play.
Harden, however, is a bigger question. He has put up big numbers and played in the majority of games, similarly to Ingram, and those numbers were bigger than Ingram. Toronto being a better team that the Clippers, where Harden compiled most of those stats before being traded to Cleveland, likely factored into the equation.
Is Ingram a better player than the half-dozen or so players over whom he was selected? No. Is he having a better season than they are? Probably not. But the right combination of factors came together for him to make his second career All-Star Game, and give the Raptors two All-Stars for the first time in years.
Brandon Ingram, you're heading to Los Angeles!