Lakers preach patience regarding Ingram's weight gain

The Lakers selected Brandon Ingram second overall in June's draft, and although concerns over the 18-year-old's durability in light of his lean frame have been raised ad nauseum in the media, Los Angeles isn't pressuring him to take any extreme measures in order to put on weight.

"He's young," new Lakers head coach Luke Walton told Baxter Holmes of ESPN. "He'll grow into it."

"It" is Ingram's 6-foot-9 body, 7-foot-3 wingspan, and 9-foot-2 standing reach - tipping the scale at just 190 pounds. It's not for a lack of effort to bulk up, though.

"I tried to eat more," Ingram said, "but I wasn't getting any thicker."

He ate a lot - 5,000 calories per day, actually - and put in work in the weight room to gain 25 pounds last year as a freshman at Duke.

Ingram's mother, Joann, said he was a "fat little boy" before hitting a growth spurt that started in middle school, and may not be done yet. Coaches have told the forward the reason his body weight hasn't been able to catch up with his height is because he grew so fast and is still growing - likely another inch or two.

So now he's letting it happen naturally, no longer forcing himself to eat hundreds, even thousands of calories every two hours.

"I tried before, but I just eat what I can during the day," he said. "Whenever my reminder comes up, if I'm not hungry, I still try to eat a little something just to get through the day."

He originally set a target of reaching 210 pounds by the time the NBA campaign rolls around, but he's thrown that out the window, too.

"I actually don't have a goal right now. ... I know we have good trainers. I'll just listen to them."

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak supports that approach and believes his lottery pick's body will fill out.

"It's going to happen. Naturally," he said.