Ingram deserved his second-career All-Star selection this season, and even with injuries to a few stars, he may still be snubbed from the injury replacement list.
Toronto Raptors forward Brandon Ingram was snubbed from this year’s NBA All-Star Game. After the announcement that Collin Murray-Boyles, Alijah Martin, Scottie Barnes, and Darko Rajakovic will all be participating in All-Star Weekend, the one-time All-Star will have to cheer on his coach and teammates from home.
As most know, the initial rosters for the All-Star Game are rarely finalized due to injuries or other reasons for players to sit out. Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard was already added as an extra for the USA Stripes team because Team World has nine players, and the two USA teams have 15 total.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) | © Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
While Ingram could argue his availability should have supported his case over Leonard’s, his counting stats have been through the roof, especially since LA started winning games. Leonard has only played 37 games this season, but he still has averaged 27.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.6 assists on 50/39/91 shooting splits.
Adding recency bias into the equation, the Clippers started the season 6-21 and immediately won 16 of their next 19 games. In that incredible stretch, the seven-time All-Star achieved averages of 31.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists on 51/43/92 shooting splits (via StatMuse), showing that he still has the ability to dominate the league like he did when he won Finals MVP as a Raptor in 2019.
There is still potential for Ingram to be added as an injury replacement for Sunday’s games. However, the new USA vs. World format complicates things for Ingram. It’s already been determined that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be out for the All-Star festivities with injuries. Anthony Edwards also has said in a lockerroom interview that he is “banged up” and may not play in the All-Star Game.
One would think that Ingram would surely be able to replace one of these three, but the new USA vs. World format complicates the path for the former No. 2 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Ingram’s selection to be an injury replacement will heavily depend on the NBA’s process of selecting players, whether it will be Eastern Conference players replacing players from their conference and the same for the West, or American players replacing Americans and the same for the foreign players.
Either path wouldn’t be a lock for the former Duke Blue Devil, being that two of the three players are either on Team World or members of the Western Conference. This seems highly unlikely, but if somehow the NBA tries to do exact replacements like a foreign-born Eastern Conference player to replace Antetokounmpo, then Ingram will just be out of luck.