Why Toronto Raptors should let Brandon Ingram play

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When the Raptors acquired Brandon Ingram in an interesting and unexpected trade nearly two months ago, this corner set the over/under on Ingram’s games played as a Raptor this season at three and expected the over to be the more likely scenario.

Well, as it turns out we probably won’t see Ingram in a real game at all until October.

Ingram has now missed 48 games since injuring his left ankle while coming down on an encroaching defender back on Dec. 7.

The latest update from the Raptors on Sunday was that Ingram is running and moving laterally, but has not yet been cleared for contact. They added more info would be revealed in 10 days.

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Ankle sprains rarely take this long to recover from, but the Pelicans and then the Raptors have played it extremely safe with Ingram, New Orleans because they didn’t want to risk further injury while trying to trade the former all-star and Toronto because the franchise presumably wants to lose as many games as possible the rest of the way to increase its lottery odds.

Assuming details haven’t been hidden and that this is a typical ankle injury, even of the Grade 3 variety (typically 3-6 month recovery time), Ingram probably will be healthy enough to play at some point in the nearly three weeks remaining in the season (six games will be left if the next update does come on April 2).

And, though it seems unlikely Ingram will suit up, he should, especially for the three home games that will still be on the docket.

It would be helpful to get Ingram some playing time alongside the other key Raptors to jump-start next year’s training camp and whatever summer work happens first. It might also help him mentally to test his ankle and get back on the floor.

Basketball hasn’t been the most fun for Ingram for a while, between the contractual impasse he found himself at with the Pelicans and that team’s disappointing play and never-ending run of injuries.

It would also be nice for the paying fans to get a late treat after suffering through a second straight ugly season.

Some would argue ramping Ingram all the way back up for a few games after such a long absence only to shut him down for the summer doesn’t make a lot of sense, medically speaking.

We’d counter he’ll have five months to recover before being ramped up again for next season, he has been load-managed enough. Ingram has only played 595 minutes all season, less than half of his previous career low.

What about the tanking angle? As in the belief that the Raptors should be doing everything possible to increase the odds they lose games, not powering themselves up?

That is the right move for the franchise, adding as high a pick as possible would be most beneficial, but a few games of Ingram probably won’t make any impact there.

By the time the next Ingram update arrives, Toronto will have played Brooklyn twice and Philadelphia once. Those are the teams that are still catchable in the race for the bottom (both are two games worse than the Raptors).

Unless Toronto loses all of those games, or at least both against Brooklyn, which would make things interesting and make us reconsider the idea of playing Ingram, the team likely is locked into the seventh-best odds entering the lottery.

So, an Ingram cameo wouldn’t make any difference lottery-wise.

Let him play, Raptors.

@WolstatSun