Utah Jazz: Chinese draft prospect claims to model game after Joe Ingles

 Chinese NBA prospect Abudushalamu Abudurexiti recently claimed that he models his game after Utah Jazz small forward Joe Ingles.

Now that the Utah Jazz are out of the playoffs, the main focus for Jazz fans and the organization alike will turn to the NBA Draft set for June 21. As the team looks to take yet another leap towards the goal of title contention, they’ll aim to procure more talent to add to their young core by working out several players and hopefully landing their ideal draft pick, just like they were able to do last season when they traded up to nab Donovan Mitchell.

Utah Jazz PR announced on Friday that the Jazz will begin holding pre-draft workouts on Saturday, with the group coming in including South Carolina’s Brian Bowen, BYU’s Elijah Bryant, Villanova’s Donte DiVincenzo, Kentucky’s Wenyen Gabriel, San Diego State’s Jalen McDaniels and Virginia’s Devon Hall.

But according to a recent piece from The Athletic’s Michael Scotto, a certain intriguing prospect has already worked out for the Jazz. Said prospect is a soon-to-be 22-year-old from China by the name of Abudushalamu Abudurexiti (pronounced Ah-BOO-Doo-Shah-LAH-Moo Ah-BOO-Doo-Rex-EE-Tee).

Abudurexiti is a bit of a mystery prospect, but certainly has the potential and upside to be a steal in the second round. In addition to the Utah Jazz, it was reported that the six-foot-eight, 200-pound Chinese native also worked out for the Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, meaning he’s certainly drawing some interest around The Association.

And one tidbit about him that Jazz fans may particularly find intriguing is that when asked who he models his game after, he replied with an all too familiar name. Nope, not LeBron James or Kevin Durant as many NBA prospects may bring up. Instead, Abudurexiti claims to model his play style after the one, the only, the legend, Joe Ingles.

Here’s what he had to say about his Aussie role model:

"“May not be the answer you’d expect, but I’ve been watching a lot of Joe Ingles the past few seasons. We are of a similar size and build, both very skilled and excellent shooters and passers for the position. Joe is a tough player with a high basketball IQ.”"

https://twitter.com/CarlSetterlund/status/995087933098090496

Call me crazy, but I like the kid already! Ingles was once an overlooked and unheralded prospect who has improved into a starter quality small forward for an elite Western Conference team. If Abudurexiti is modelling his game after Slo-Mo Joe, perhaps he’ll be able to follow a similar trajectory from initially flying under the radar to eventually turning into a formidable talent.

Joe Ingles caught wind of Abudushalamu’s compliment and clearly approved as well, as you can see in the tweet below:

https://twitter.com/Joeingles7/status/995088462242959360

The Utah Jazz are set to pick 21st and 52nd in the 2018 NBA Draft. Though there will very likely be much more talented players available for Utah’s first-round pick, perhaps if they like Abudurexiti enough, they’ll aim to pick him up with the 52nd pick in the second round, assuming he’s still available at that point.

If he truly is set to become Joe Ingles 2.0, he’d be pretty hard for the Jazz to pass up. If he is able to master some of those skill sets, putting him in Utah’s exceptional development program could be an absolute recipe for success.

Next: Utah Jazz ’17-18 review: Tony Bradley’s seesaw first year

Abudushalamu Abudurexiti is only one of many exciting prospects that the Jazz and other NBA teams will be taking a look at in preparation for the upcoming draft. It will be an exciting process and absolutely intriguing to see who the Jazz end up taking with their picks or perhaps who they end up trading for in order to get the guy(s) they desire.