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Utah Jazz: Joe Ingles having an under-the-radar career season

By Mitchell Hansen

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - FEBRUARY 14: Joe Ingles
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - FEBRUARY 14: Joe Ingles /
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In his fourth NBA season, Utah Jazz wing Joe Ingles is having a career year all while flying under the radar on a red-hot Jazz team.

The Utah Jazz have been one of the NBA’s hottest teams over the second half span of the regular season.

Entering Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks in Utah, the Jazz hold a record of 40-30 overall and are currently sitting tied with the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans for fifth place in the Western Conference standings, making the jump from the No. 10 seed to the No. 5 seed in a matter of about a week.

Utah is now two games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and the No. 4 seed, while trailing the Portland Trail Blazers and the No. 3 seed by four games.

The Jazz also enter Tuesday’s slate of games having won nine straight and are winners in 22 of their last 25 games.

That success is large in part due the stellar play of rookie standout Donovan Mitchell, star center Rudy Gobert and point guard Ricky Rubio, who is in his inaugural season in Salt Lake City.

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Another player who has kind of flown under the radar in the midst of all of Utah’s success has been the play of Jazz wing Joe Ingles.

Ingles, one of the league’s top sharpshooters, is having a career season in his fourth year in the NBA.

Through 70 games, 69 of which he started, Ingles is averaging career highs of 11.3 points (previous high was 7.1 a season ago), 4.3 assists (previous high was 2.7) and 4.2 rebounds per game (previous high was 3.2). He is also averaging 1.1 steals per game, the second-best mark of his career.

The 30-year-old, who has been a stellar shooter from the field during his career, is recording a career-high mark of 46.6 percent from the field, while leading the entire NBA with a career-high 45 percent from 3.

In Saturday’s win over the Sacramento Kings in Salt Lake City, which extended Utah’s winning streak to nine, Ingles moved up to 10th among NBA players in total 3-point baskets made this season with 179. Houston Rocket’s star James Harden is atop that list.

That season total of 179 3-pointers also sets a new Jazz franchise record for most 3s in a single year — and we still have about a dozen games remaining in the regular season for that number to grow.

Many people around the league were unsure if Ingles would be able to play up to the quality of play that he has so far this season in Utah, questioning whether or not the Jazz should have given Ingles a four-year, $52 million deal in July of 2017.

Utah, however, expected this out of their veteran wing and he has proven to everyone that he is worthy of making around $12 million annually through the 2020-21 season.

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The Jazz are rolling right now and have stormed onto the playoff scene in the Western Conference. With players like Mitchell, Gobert and even Rubio getting a lot of the recognition and praise for helping Utah climb back into the race for the postseason, Ingles deserves just as much credit in what has become a career year.

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