The second reason Utah Jazz fans love Joe Ingles: Versatility
A quick question: what position does Joe Ingles play?
If you’ve spent as much time digging through images of him as we have, you know they’re as likely to be captioned “Utah Jazz guard” as they are “Utah Jazz forward”. Per CleaningtheGlass, Ingles spent 51% of his time at Small Forward in 2021-22, and 49% of his time at Power Forward.
In 2016-17, he spent a lot less time at the latter position: 4% of his minutes to be exact. That year, the majority of his time came at Small Forward (85%) while 12% of his time came at Shooting Guard.
Throughout his career, the bulk of his time has been spread across those 3 positions. Still, Ingles can function as a de facto point guard. His passing vision certainly qualifies him for the position, as indicated by the career high 5.7 assists per game he averaged in 2018-19.
So to summarize, Ingles is a 3 who can moonlight as a 2 or a 4, and often plays like a 1.
Got it.
The reality is, Ingles has done whatever the Utah Jazz have asked of him throughout his career in Salt Lake City. That kind of versatility is a tremendous asset in a role player. Some players are dots, and some players are lines that connect them.
Hardly a player in the NBA connects dots as succinctly as Joe Ingles.