SANTA BARBARA — After Brandon Ingram had beaten Nick Young and Julius Randle knocked out Tarik Black, the two victorious forwards matched up for the final round of the Lakers' one-on-one tournament Friday.
Though Ingram pushed Randle to the brink of a loss, the big man simply posted up and spun off the rookie for the winning bucket.
“With the bigger guys, you've kind of got to use your skill set a little bit more; more finesse,” Randle said at Saturday's training camp practice at UC Santa Barbara. “With B.I., I was just trying to put it in the basket.”
Brandon Ingram beat Nick Young, and Randle beat Tarik Black to get to the 1-on-1 final. Randle won 3-2 with this bully move: pic.twitter.com/8aj42e7DOA
Randle ended up winning the contest by a 3-2 score, but head coach Luke Walton was pleased with his No. 2 pick's performance.
Aware of critiques about Ingram's thin frame, Walton maintained that he is fine with his physicality right now.
“He scored all of his points in the post against the guards and then matched up with Julius, who's as strong as there is in this league,” Walton said. “(Ingram) was holding his own out there. So I'm not nearly as concerned with his weight. I'm more just focused on how he is developing and growing in the NBA game. He's a lot stronger than he appears.”
Ingram, meanwhile, estimates that Randle has about 60 pounds on him. But other than taking one perimeter shot instead of attacking the basket, Ingram liked the way he played the 6-foot-9, 250-pounder.
“I grew up playing bigger guys all my life, so it's nothing different,” Ingram said. “Seeing bigger guys doesn't scare me at all. It just makes me want to compete against those guys. Bigger or smaller guys — it doesn't matter.”
A photo posted by Lakers Scene (@lakersscene) on Oct 1, 2016 at 2:54pm PDT
Coach W Drafted out of Duke, Ingram likened Walton's offensive system to that of his college coach: Mike Krzyzewski.
“It's very similar to the way we played at Duke,” Ingram said. “Coach K tried to implement a style where we passing, moving the ball, the open guy gets the open shot, running in transition. That's what Luke has done. The way we're playing is very fun right now and we like to run and gun.”
While Walton — whom Ingram labeled a “players' coach” — has been happy with the way his team has worked at training camp, he is aware that it is far from a finished product.
One of his assessments spoke to that belief of constant motion on offense.
“If someone makes the wrong cut, then everyone stops (and starts) trying to figure out what they should do,” Walton said. “And the idea is that there are no wrong cuts. We have a play that we want to run. But if you mess that up, you just keep moving, go screen for somebody else and try to just keep the ball going.”
A photo posted by Los Angeles Lakers (@lakers) on Oct 1, 2016 at 2:52pm PDT
