Hes 6-foot-9, and shoots the lights out with moves that are more advanced than Kevin Durant at this stage -- according to Kevin Durant. Hes one of the highest draft picks in Los Angeles Lakers history and is slated to be the next star and savior of Hollywoods favorite sports team.Ever since late June, his life has been a whirlwind -- jetting to New York to be drafted (and endorse a deodorant stick), then heading to his North Carolina hometown, then to Los Angeles to be introduced as a Laker, then to Las Vegas for NBA summer league and to practice against Team USA, then to L.A. to house hunt (and endorse an oatmeal chocolate chip protein bar), then back to North Carolina to catch his breath.Along the way, every element of that jet-set life has been interrupted by a reminder app on Brandon Ingrams iPhone -- the little app that dings every three to four hours, every ... single ... day, telling him to eat. On a recent afternoon in Las Vegas, Ingram sank into a hotel room couch and explained how he aims for six feedings every 24 hours: breakfast, then a snack, then lunch, then a snack, then dinner, then a midnight snack. It gets sickening, Ingram says, sounding tired, but I just try to stick to it.Ingram says he gorges on steak, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and ... well, it sounds like hed rather stop there. Though Ingrams favorite class at Duke was public speaking, hes famously soft spoken; even sitting a few feet away, its hard to hear him above the whir of a nearby air conditioner. But he seems even more reserved about the subject of his weight -- or lack thereof. And its understandable. He has faced such questions in almost every interview (and countless other settings) for years.I think it just gives me motivation to show these guys that the skinny part doesnt matter, Ingram said on a conference call shortly after the Lakers selected him No. 2 overall this summer. It got me here today. Being skinny didnt mean nothing when I was battling with each and every guy, each and every night.So when Ingram calls his daily diet sickening, he may also be talking about years of ad nauseam skinny chatter. But when he says hes trying to stick to it, well, that comes after years of food not sticking to him.It is upon this thin frame that the Lakers have placed the hopes of resurrecting a fallen franchise, yet the greatest anxiety entering Ingrams rookie season and beyond is whether that wispy body can withstand the grind of an 82-game regular season featuring nightly battles against those far more physically mature.Even after reportedly gaining about 25 pounds last year, hes listed at 190 and bears the build of a coat hanger -- and thats what onlookers notice first, remember most and seem to worry about above all else. They cast aside his 7-foot-3 wingspan, 9-foot-2 standing reach, 41 percent shooting from 3-point range at Duke. What they fret about instead is how, if Ingram turned sideways, the 18-year-old might disappear from view altogether.THERE WAS A time when Ingram didnt appear so frail. He was a fat little boy, believe it or not, recalls Ingrams mother, Joann. Or, as Ingram remembers it, I was kind of a little chubby in the face.By middle school, though, Ingram began growing, and his father, Donald, began telling his son on an almost weekly basis, Dang, youre looking a little bit taller this week. Soon, Ingram could stand beside his 6-3 father and the two were equals. Then, Ingram says, he grew two more inches during each year of high school.During all those years spent sprouting skyward, Ingram never missed a meal, Donald says. He was always in the kitchen, adds Bo, Brandons older brother. But nothing seemed to work. I tried to eat more, Ingram says, but I wasnt getting any thicker.He faces the same issues still -- and they may continue, according to what coaches have told Joann about her son. They said hes not finished growing, so his body hasnt had a chance to catch up with him, Joann says. I wouldve thought he was finished, but they said they think he has another inch or two in him.Concerns about Ingrams durability certainly arent new. They existed before his freshman season at Duke, according to Blue Devils assistant coach Jeff Capel, who recruited Ingram. I dont know if I ever expressed it to [Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski], Capel says, but that was a concern that I had -- Will he be able to hold up for the whole season? Capel worried about Ingram most entering the meat of Dukes schedule, when the team faced veteran-laden Atlantic Coast Conference teams.To help, Ingram spent hours in the weight room. The other thing is that he ate, Capel says. We had him eating all the time. After Duke, Ingram worked with a North Carolina-based personal trainer and consumed six meals totaling 5,000 calories per day leading up to the draft. Around that time, Ingram relied on the reminder application on his phone -- it went off every two hours, Joann says -- to keep up with his hectic diet. He told USA Today that he wanted to weigh 210 pounds by the Lakers 2016-17 opener in the fall.The knee-jerk reaction: If Ingram wants to succeed in the mans world of the NBA, he must continue feasting to add as much weight as possible as quickly as possible. That view isnt exclusive to Ingram; its decades old and is especially reserved for svelte young hoopers who, upon realizing their pro aspirations, look like saplings in an old-growth forest.But its wrong, experts say.Weight goals and accelerated weight gain, they claim, are not only shortsighted, but dangerous.IN HIS 2013 book Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable, longtime trainer Tim Grover, who has worked with hundreds of players, most notably Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, is clear: the goal isnt to add muscle or even necessarily weight.The goal is to train your muscles for maximum quick, explosive force, Grover writes. If you want a bodybuilding program for beach muscles, look elsewhere.In an interview, Grover laments the notion that Ingram must rapidly bulk up in order to survive in the pro ranks.Thats how theyre going to fail in the NBA, Grover says. [Weight gain should be] a slow process. These are basketball players. These arent body builders. They move. They perform. They have to perform out there. So they know how their body feels. You cant 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 and others who have worked with athletes in this field for years strongly suggest that the best and safest approach to weight gain is to space it out over several years. And if Ingram wants a specific blueprint, he neednt look any further than the childhood idol whose posters graced his bedroom wall, whose sneakers he sported, and whose moves he mirrored, a fellow slender, sharp-shooting wing to whom his build is most often compared: Kevin Durant.IN 2007, DURANT swept seven national player of the year awards following a scintillating freshman season at the University of Texas, where he led the Big 12 Conference in scoring (25.8 points per game) and rebounding (11.1). Yet for all his talent, the biggest national buzz involved what he lacked: strength.The Seattle Times, citing a confidential pre-draft document, reported that the 6-foot-9 Durant was the only one of 80 prospects unable to bench press 185 pounds. That detail fueled fears at the time that Durant might be too thin -- listed at 215 pounds at Texas -- and too weak to last in the NBA.History suggests that Durant, ahem, overcame that shortcoming. Looking back, Durant says today, I just didnt care what people were saying. I knew that I was a little different as a player, so I wouldnt let that get in my way of what I wanted to do. Mentally, I knew that I could play with these guys [in the NBA]. I didnt let me not lifting 185 pounds or being 210 [pounds] coming in -- I didnt let it affect me.Durant and Ingram spent time together recently when Ingram joined the U.S. Select team that trained against Durant and Team USA before the Olympics. And as Durant looked across the Las Vegas court at Ingram, he saw his younger self.He reminds me of myself, but hes a little [further] along than I was at that stage, Durant says. The first person I can say that I can look at him and I feel like Im looking in a mirror.Further along?Hes a little bit more fluid than I was, Durant says. As far as skill wise, hes a little bit more advanced than I was at that time. I was just running, jumping, shooting 3s. But he can put the ball on the floor, change directions, get to the rim, shoot the pull-up 3. That stuff started to come a little bit later on for me.Durant, its worth noting, steadily added bulk through the years rather than all at once. A 2015 story by The Oklahoman noted that Durant weighed 212 as a rookie, 223 by 2009, 231 by 2011 and 237 by 2013, a gain of roughly 25 pounds over his first six NBA seasons -- or a little more than four pounds per season. A slow pace, no doubt, but there ar