While there were some nice aspects of Joe Ingles 2018-19 performance, overall his drop in efficiency made for a disappointing season.
When thinking about how the Utah Jazz were able to bounce back from the loss of Gordon Hayward in the summer of 2017 and continue to be a playoff caliber team, most Jazz fans will give a lot of the credit to the rise of Donovan Mitchell. Others will praise the defensive excellence of Rudy Gobert who always keeps the Jazz anchored on that end. Still others might give brilliant head coach Quin Snyder the nod for keeping the team in the upper tier of the West. All of those are very much deserved.
But one player that certainly deserves credit is Joe Ingles. Ingles has developed a reputation as a lights-out 3-point shooter and a hard-nosed irritant capable of pestering opposing players relentlessly on the defensive end. The strides he’s made and the work he’s put into his game to improve on both ends of the floor has undoubtedly made the Jazz a better team than many would have predicted a couple years ago.
And since the departure of Hayward, Ingles has upped his game further, becoming one of the key scoring options on a Jazz team that sometimes struggles to put the ball through the hoop. He cashed in 11.5 points per game a season ago and 12.1 this past season, the best mark of his career. He also excelled in a point-forward role as Utah’s occasional primary ball-handler, dishing out a career-best 5.7 assists per game.
Unfortunately, while those were some nice upticks to see in Ingles’ game, the 31-year-old still didn’t quite have the season many might have hoped. It felt like he never got into the shooting groove that he has the past two years and he wasn’t nearly the deadly weapon from the perimeter that the Jazz so often needed him to be.
Sure, the 39.1 percent mark that he put up from deep was far from something to balk at and better than most shooters across the league. But when compared with his 44 and 44.1 percent clips from the past two years, it was quite a downgrade. Not only that, but his overall field goal percentage dropped nearly two percent from a season ago to 44.8 percent, marking his worst efficiency since the 2015-16 season.
Joe Ingles went through the ringer this season, with his young son Jacob's autism diagnosis and struggles in the @utahjazz's playoff loss to the Rockets. It was "the toughest year of my career," says Ingles, who is already looking ahead to 2019-20. https://t.co/UD8mhm6rfk pic.twitter.com/YgcUwgrVHX
— Salt Lake Tribune Sports (@sltribsports) May 1, 2019
Ingles’ inconsistency and shooting struggles culminated in this season’s first-round playoff matchup against the Houston Rockets. Where Ingles was so effective last year, most notably in shutting down Paul George and shooting the lights out on the Oklahoma City Thunder, he essentially completely disappeared this time around. The Aussie averaged a meager 6.4 points per game while posting horrific shooting marks of 32.4 percent from the field and 27.6 percent from deep.
All in all, Joe Ingles didn’t have a bad year by any means. He was still one of Utah’s most effective floor spacers, continued in his important role as a 3-and-D player and was crucial to the offense as the team’s fourth leading scorer. However, considering that his efficiency took such a dip this year, and as a result his consistency as well, and that Ingles was essentially a non-factor in the playoffs, it’s hard to give him all that high of a grade in 2018-19.
It’s not that he was awful, but in many ways he failed to live up to expectations. Maybe it was unfair to expect Ingles to continue to improve as he has the past two seasons considering that he’s now on the wrong side of 30. Although to his credit, in some ways he definitely showed a more advanced repertoire as well so there were still some nice strides. Nevertheless, his most critical role for the Jazz is serving as a 3-point specialist and sniper extraordinaire.
But he didn’t deliver there to nearly the degree that was hoped for. Instead, he disappeared when the team needed him most and failed to hit big shots when his name was called in the playoffs. For those overarching reasons, unfortunately I’m giving Ingles a less than glimmering review for this past season.
2018-19 Grade: C+
The Utah Jazz unquestionably need to add more reliable 3-point shooting this summer to bolster the roster for next season. However, that area can also be enhanced internally if Joe Ingles is simply able to get back to his old self from the prior two campaigns. If Joe can get his grade up during the 2019-20 season, it could very well bolster the Jazz’s level of success dramatically.
Other 2018-19 Utah Jazz Player Grades: