Utah Jazz In Trouble In Western Conference – Joe Ingles Suffers Torn Left ACL
Losing in the Western Conference Semifinals last season to the Los Angeles Clippers after holding the best record in the NBA was a real disappointment for the Utah Jazz and this season has been worse.
The Jazz are currently 30-21 and have lost 11 of their last 13 games due to Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert landing on the injury report. Mitchell has missed eleven games this season, most recently Utah’s last seven games with a concussion, and Gobert has missed a total of nine games this season, including Utah’s last four games with a calf injury.
On top of everything else, the Jazz will now be without veteran sharpshooter Joe Ingles for the rest of the season, as he suffered a torn left ACL on Sunday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Over the last few weeks, the Jazz have been engaged in trade talks across the league and sources have told NBA Analysis Network that Ingles was a key part of trade talks for the Jazz given that he was in the final year of his contract.
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Making $13M this season and with the Jazz already being $16M over the tax line on the year, Joe Ingles was this team’s path to possibly increasing their overall roster talent ahead of the playoffs. One of the main concerns with this team is that they do not have another high-level scoring option next to Donovan Mitchell and now with Ingles out, the path to adding this type of talent at the trade deadline is almost non-existent now.
Pistons’ forward Jerami Grant had been brought up in trade talks recently for the Jazz in a trade package centered around Joe Ingles and others, but now it appears that the only way Utah can still pursue Grant is if they are willing to trade away veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic, who is making $18.7M this season.
This injury not only lessens Utah’s team morale more than it already has the last few weeks, but now their ability to make a difference-making trade is limited.
Utah is still looking to add a little bit of talent ahead of the trade deadline, yet they really do not have many assets they can leverage. Royce O’Neale is an interesting name to keep an eye on given that his role with the team is minimal, but Joe Ingles’ injury could result in the Jazz putting a lot of faith in veteran Rudy Gay.
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This past offseason, the Jazz signed Gay to a three-year, $18.5M contract and now with Ingles out for the season, he suddenly becomes this team’s number two option off-the-bench next to Jordan Clarkson.
Getting Rudy Gay involved more is going to be key for the Jazz the rest of this season, especially since the chances of them making a big trade are slim. Just one game in front of the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks for the 4-seed in the Western Conference now, the Utah Jazz definitely have their work cut out for them the rest of the season.
