Utah Jazz: The Future Of Joe Ingles

Joe Ingles is a fan favorite for the Utah Jazz, but as he approaches free agency, it might be time to start saying goodbye to the Australian small forward.

Joe Ingles embodies everything that is the Utah Jazz. He flies below the radar and is the quintessential workhorse every good team needs.

Coaches don’t want a player that doesn’t do what they tell them, but they don’t want a player that only does what they tell them, either.

Ingles is just that, with a willingness to listen and learn alongside a curiosity to push the boundaries.

He will more often than not make the simple play, the right way. Typically players like that are labelled safe and boring, but just as you think Ingles is the same, BANG!, he buries a step back three after shaking an unsuspecting opposition defender

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Behind the scenes he demands little ball and less attention but gives a lot in the form of effort and time; it’s time now for the Jazz to start giving back to their man from down-under.

Utah Jazz

At the end of the 2016-17 season, Ingles becomes a restricted free agent. He’s one of those prickly free agents that has general managers nervous about the prospects of a cash-heavy, struggling team, offering more than their worth to help their team improve now.

Earning $2.15 million this season in the final year of his contract, Ingles will be looking for a pay raise.

With the $2,873,750 qualifying offer to more than likely to be rejected, the chances of having Ingles headhunted with an offering more than what the Jazz are prepared to pay becomes a real possibility.

As one of the best three-point shooters in the game, Ingles is connecting on 44 percent of the 3.2 shots per game he takes from beyond the arc.

Almost 50 percent of his shots are catch-and-shoot opportunities, which he his making at a 45 percent rate, but as the below clip shows, he can create his own shot and shoot off the dribble if the open shot isn’t there.

When Jingles isn’t hitting shots himself, he’s creating for others. Averaging 2.3 assists in his 22 minutes a game, at times it looks like he has binocular vision.

Ingles is going to be 30 years old when he starts the 2017-18 season. He was a late bloomer and while that doesn’t bode well for potential contracts with teams being worried about his age, it also gives him an incentive to him take that career payday with whatever team offers the most money.

Ingles is in an arduous position where he has a chance to be a part of something special, but he’s not going to be overpaid to do it.

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The probable off-season scenario sees Gordon Hayward opt out and pick up a max deal of as much as $30.9 million in 2017-18.

Add that to Rudy Gobert ($21,224,719) Derrick Favors ($12 million), Joe Johnson ($11 million) and Alec Burks ($10,845,506) and that’s already $85,970,225 being paid out to the top five guys on the team.

Dante Exum, Trey Lyles, Rodney Hood and Raul Neto will account for $10,835,395 in 2017-18, which brings the total signed before Ingles to $96,805,620.

With George Hill also on the market for anywhere between $14 million to $20 million, along with a projected $103 million salary cap, the Jazz will have a lot of work to do to keep Ingles at a price that suits both parties.

It would be a sad day to see a fan favorite like Ingles leave Utah, but it’s something Jazz fans need to prepare for.

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Given the salary cap and the amount of young talent in line to get paid, Ingles might be the first of many in coming seasons to walk out the doors of Vivint Smart Home Arena and return in a different jersey.