3 reasons Utah Jazz fans love Joe Ingles

Utah Jazz staple Joe Ingles’ season ended prematurely on Sunday. An MRI revealed that the veteran suffered a torn ACL in the Jazz’s last contest with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jazz fans are understandably crushed. With Ingles’ contract due to expire, and his play (slightly) declining as it stands, it’s unclear whether they’ll ever see Ingles play as a Jazzman again. That would be something to mourn. In the 8 seasons Ingles has spent with the team (the entirety of his NBA career), he’s become one of its most beloved members.

Here are 3 reasons why.

The first reason Utah Jazz fans love Joe Ingles: Three-point shooting.

We’ll start from an obvious place. Joe Ingles established himself as one of the best three-point shooters in the National Basketball Association in a Utah Jazz uniform.

It wasn’t apparent that this would be the case from the onset. In his 2014-15 rookie season, Ingles shot 35.6% on 2.6 attempts per contest. Those figures would improve in his sophomore year, as he shot 38.6% on the same number of attempts. In his third year, Ingles’ three-point shooting would explode.

In 2016-17, Ingles hit 44.1% of his 3.4 long range attempts per game. He never really looked back, flirting with 40% accuracy up until his efficiency began to wain over the current season. His best shooting year came just last season, when he hit an incredible 45.1% of his 6.1 attempts per contest.

Ingles is a multifaceted player who has offered the Utah Jazz quite a lot over the years. However, had he been a 3 point specialist, he still would have earned a place in Quin Snyder’s rotation.