Joe Ingles – A return to three-point dominance
Joe Ingles is without a doubt one of the amazing success stories of the Utah Jazz. Considering that he was cut from the LA Clippers prior to the start of the 2014-15 season and seemed a long shot to ever play meaningful minutes in Utah, his ability to enhance his game as a then-28-year-old is incredible.
At age 31, he’s nothing close to some end-of-the-bench scrub. Instead, he’s a starter-caliber player who can fill it up from the perimeter, defend the wing far better than one would presume and stuff the box score with a litany of incredible and impactful stats.
However, as much as Ingles is known as one of the greatest three-point shooters in the NBA, he took a significant dip last season which at times was quite detrimental to Utah’s overall offense. Sure, it feels silly to complain about a 39.1 percent clip from deep which is still elite at the NBA level. But considering that he went 44 percent or better in each of the previous two seasons, well, let’s just say that five percent difference was wildly felt.
Ingles affects the game in a lot of ways, but when his three-ball isn’t falling, his impact definitely takes a big hit. Too often there were games last season where Ingles struggled to match the dead-eye abilities Jazz fans have become so accustomed to. If they are to reach championship-worthy heights this upcoming year, that will have to be remedied.
A good chunk of Joe’s perimeter shooting woes took place early in the season, as he went just 37.1 percent in November, 37.7 percent in December and 30.6 percent in January. Again, outside of January, it feels petty to nitpick on 37 percent shooting from deep, but I imagine even Joe himself would be disappointed with that mark, so I think it’s a fair criticism to point out.
Fortunately, it was good to see him elevate his shooting from there to close out the regular season, but he once again took a turn for the worst at the most unfortunate time imaginable. In the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Houston Rockets, Ingles cooled off in an unbelievable way, going an atrocious 27.6 percent from deep.
Sure, some of that was bad luck in a small five-game sample size. Some credit should go to Houston’s defense as well. But all excuses aside, that kind of slump on the biggest stage can’t happen to a guy renowned as one of Utah’s greatest weapons and most dangerous shooters.
As talented as the Jazz appear primed to be this season, a lot is going to have to come together seamlessly in order for them to be the team to come out of the West. One of those is a return to dominance at the three-point line for Joe Ingles. With added three-point threats in Mike Conley and especially Bojan Bogdanovic, hopefully the added spacing will give Joe even more opportunities to drain the deep-ball at an efficient clip.