The Utah Jazz will be without the services of forward Joe Ingles for the remainder of the year and possibly the start of the 2022-23 campaign. Scans revealed that the fan favourite suffered a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury that typically carries a 6-9 month recovery period.
The 34 year old suffered the injury in Sunday evening’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ingles was averaging 7.2pts/2.9reb/3.5ast per game, in 24 minutes a night coming off the bench for the Jazz and was a key component in Utah’s rotation.
Ingles’ injury couldn’t come at a worse time for the Jazz. Once among the Western Conference’s elite, Utah is currently riding a 5 game losing streak and are only 2-8 over their last 10. They’re also dealing with injuries to star centre Rudy Gobert (calf) and guard Donovan Mitchell (concussion), making an already thin roster further depleted.
Ingles is one of the league’s most decorated international players. The small forward is a EuroLeague Champion, 2x Spanish League Champion, NBL Champion, and 2020 Olympic bronze medallist with Australia.
Yet despite the international hardware he’s accumulated, Ingles and the Jazz have struggled to get over the hump in the NBA playoffs, failing to make it past the conference semifinals in any of his 8 seasons in Salt Lake City. Now as he approaches 35 years old, Ingles finds himself set to hit free agency as he recovers from major knee surgery.
Whether Utah elects to bring the 4 time Olympian back into the fold next year or opts to head in a different direction remains to be seen. The Adelaide native is the franchise’s all time leader in made 3 pointers, and recently signed a 1 year $13M deal with the Jazz this past offseason.
Utah currently has limited draft assets (they can’t deal any 1st rounders until 2026) and are top heavy in terms of their current contracts. In fact no one outside their core rotation makes more than $2.1M per season, making it difficult to make any kind of salary match if they hope to acquire an impact player at the deadline.
Udoka Azubuike ($2.075M), Eric Paschall ($1.782M) and Elijah Hughes ($1.5M) are the only other players currently making in excess of $1M per season. That would seem to indicate that if the Jazz do indeed make a move at the deadline, Ingles contract may need to get thrown in just to get into the same ballpark salary wise as any potential targets. However, his injury means they’ll likely need to sweeten the pot even further, or take back some less than ideal contracts to get anything done.
The Jazz are next in action on Wednesday as they play host to the Denver Nuggets as they kick off a 6 game homestand.