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Brandon Ingram is known to have a tall and wiry frame similar to a young Kevin Durant when he first entered the league.
The Los Angeles Lakers draft pick has skills to fit his unique body type, but talks of strength and weight concerns echo loudly in the Lakers camp.
Ingram has committed to packing on weight to get ready for the rigors and physicality of the NBA, and he has started a new diet in preparation for things to come.
Ingram's plan consists of three meals and three snacks every 24 hours. Breakfast, then a snack, then lunch, then a snack, then dinner, then a midnight snack.
Those meals include steak, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and anything to help pack on productive pounds. This all includes an app that reminds him of meal-time so he doesn't miss a single calorie.
How does Ingram feel about his new found diet program? He told ESPN very deliberately:
It gets sickening,but I just try to stick to it.
The Lakers are relying on Ingram to be a vital part of their franchise, and hopefully to help resurrect the team to championship status in the future. Their biggest concern is his longevity and endurance when battling against more physical players on a nightly basis.
Ingram maintains he's tried to eat more in the past but nothing worked, but his body is still maturing and growing, and it might be the best approach to not force it.
Some think accelerating weight gain in the short term is shortsighted and dangerous.
Trainer Tim Grover who has worked with NBA athletes for years, including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant shared his thoughts to ESPN on Ingram's goal of rapid bulk.
That's how they're going to fail in the NBA. [Weight gain should be] a slow process. These are basketball players. These aren't body builders. They move. They perform. They have to perform out there. So they know how their body feels. You can't just pack all this amount of weight on there and expect them to still be able to have the shooting touch and move the same way.
Grover feels weight gain should be spaced out over a few years, and thinks Ingram should take a more quality over quantity approach, similar to what Durant has done over the years.
ESPN writer and Pro training director David Thorpe also rejects the idea that Ingram needs to gain weight quickly.
I firmly believe he has to get stronger, [but] athletes get stronger. So do non-athletes.This is a game of speed and skill. The list of skinny guys that lasted a long time is very, very long.
Adding weight presents way more risk than reward. It's not going to make him jump higher, run faster or quicker. It might help him hold his position in the post, but did the Lakers draft him to put him in the post? If the biggest problem Brandon Ingram has in the next five years is that he can't hold his position in the post, I think the Lakers will be very happy.
There is just as much risk as there is reward according to trainers and dieticians. Brandon Ingram's game can be altered, or hindered, by excess weight that is put into place too quickly.
Grover recommends a steady program similar to how Jordan gained weight during his years in the league, because no one knows their body more than the actual player.
That's why I say, put on the weight real slow. If you can put on 5-8 pounds of quality muscle [in a year], which is very hard to do, and see, ‘How do you feel at this weight? How are you performing at this weight? Do you like it?' Great. OK, let's try to maintain this weight through this season.
OK, next season, you want to try to bulk up a little bit more? Let's try to put on a little bit more weight. How do you feel? ‘Ah, I'm not feeling right. My movements are a little bit slow.' OK, let's back off a little bit.
The blueprint is there, it's just a matter of Ingram following what has already been done naturally.
