Utah Jazz: Joe Ingles “Snubbed” From Three-Point Contest

Despite boasting the second best three-point percentage in the league, Joe Ingles found himself absent from the list of the NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest participants in yesterday’s announcement.

There have been several reports regarding Utah Jazz sharpshooter Joe Ingles and a possible connection to the three-point contest during NBA All-Star Saturday in recent weeks.

First it was reported that Ingles wasn’t interested in pursuing or accepting an invite and that he would prefer to spend some much needed time with his family. Then he mentioned that if fellow Aussie Patty Mills was invited then he might be more willing to participate himself.

Later, news spread that the Utah Jazz organization itself was working to help secure an invitation for the Aussie dead-eye.

Nevertheless, as the announcement for the three-point contest participants was made yesterday, it turns out that Joe Ingles did not end up finding himself on the list.

The players selected (with their three-point percentage in parentheses) were defending champion Klay Thompson (40.3), Kyle Lowry (42.7), Kemba Walker (40.2), Kyrie Irving (39.5), Eric Gordon (38.2), Wesley Matthews (38.1), C.J. McCollum (42.3) and Nick Young (41.6).

Ironically, Ingles’ percentage from behind the arc is higher than all of those participants as he currently boasts the second best three-point percentage in the league at a scorching 44.4 percent, trailing only the Washington Wizards’ Otto Porter who currently sits at 46.3 percent and also did not merit an invitation.

In fact, not one player of the NBA’s top six best three-point shooters – Porter, Ingles, Allen Crabbe, JJ Redick, Patty Mills or Jae Crowder was selected. This is pretty shocking especially considering that Gordon and Matthews, who were chosen, rank just 46th and 51st in the league in three-point percentage, respectively.

Yet in terms of Ingles’ so-called snub, who knows what the backstory is as perhaps Ingles could have participated but truly was content to “watch from the sidelines” as he put it. Nevertheless, when comparing his accuracy from deep this season with that of the participants, it surely seems that he was deserving to be in the mix.

Fortunately, I’m sure that Ingles isn’t the least bit phased by the snub and is simply content to spend some time with his family as he mentioned and continue to hit big threes for the Jazz when it truly matters most, not just in a relatively meaningless contest.

But perhaps the best thing to come out of Ingles’ snub was his and Rudy Gobert‘s jokes about what would have happened if Ingles actually had been selected for the contest, alluding to the fact that despite Slow-Mo Joe’s killer accuracy, his slow release might have caused him to struggle to have the necessary speed to be a true threat in the contest:

Pretty hilarious to imagine our boy Joe going 10-for-10 in sharpshooter style, only to hear the buzzer sound before he could make it to the rest of the racks. But more than anything, it’s good to see him take it all in stride.

So while it would have been fun to see Ingles participate in the three-point contest, Jazz fans will have to live with Gordon Hayward receiving his first All-Star nod as well as an invitation to participate in the All-Star Skills Challenge instead. Not a bad trade actually.

More from The J-Notes

• With the FIBA World Cup over for Simone Fontecchio, it’s clear he deserves minutes for the Utah Jazz
• Best, Worst and Most likely scenarios for the Utah Jazz this season
• Hoops Hype downplays the significance of the Utah Jazz’s valuable assets
• 3 Utah Jazz players who have the most to gain or lose this season
• Former Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gay is a free agent still and it shouldn’t surprise anyone

And in the meantime, hopefully this “snub” will have the same effect on Ingles as Gobert’s real All-Star snub should, and both will come out fired up and ready to push this Jazz team to new heights to close out the season.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com