ORLANDO, FLA- As initially reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Orlando Magic officially signed unrestricted free agent shooting guard Joe Ingles to a two-year, $22 million contract on Friday, June 30th. Shortly after, Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes confirmed Orlando’s signing of Ingles, while USA TODAY’S Jeff Zillgitt reported that the second year of Ingles’ contract is a team option for the Magic.
With $30+ million in cap space this offseason, Orlando decided to spend some of it on Ingles, a nine-year NBA veteran and one of the premier three-point shooters in the league.
In 46 games with Milwaukee last season, Ingles averaged 22.7 MPG, 6.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, and 0.7 SPG on 43.5% shooting from the field, 40.9% from three-point range, and 85.7% from the free-throw line. In addition, Ingles finished the 2022-2023 season with a player efficiency rating (PER) of 10.7, 61.6% true-shooting percentage, 1.1 offensive win shares, 1.2 defensive win shares, and 2.3 win shares while holding just a career-low usage rate of 12.6%.
Throughout his nine-year NBA career, Ingles has been a solid two-way player for Utah (2014-2022) and Milwaukee (2022-2023), as Ingles averaged 25.5 MPG, 8.5 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 3.7 APG, and 0.9 SPG on 44.9% shooting from the field, 40.8% from three-point range, and 77.1% from the free-throw line in 636 games (313 starts). It’s worth noting that Ingles managed to lead the NBA in games played at 82 during the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 seasons, while also playing in 70+ games in the 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2019-2020 seasons, respectively.
At 35 years old, however, Ingles has been unable to suit up for his respective teams for the majority of the past seasons, in large part to serious injuries. For reference, Ingles suffered a torn ACL in his left knee while driving to the basket in Utah’s 106-126 loss to Minnesota on January 30th, 2022. Despite his gruesome injury, Ingles was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of a three-team trade on February 9th, and later underwent successful surgery on his knee on February 23rd.
After Portland decided to not resign Ingles ahead of 2022 free agency, Milwaukee signed Ingles to a one-year, $6.5 million contract on July 6th, 2022. In spite of playing in just 46 games due to the ongoing recovery of the ACL tear, Ingles still had a considerable impact on Milwaukee’s success, helping the Bucks finish the 2022-2023 season with a 58-24 regular-season record and 1st in the Eastern Conference. Although No. 1 seed Milwaukee was shockingly eliminated by the No. 8 seed Miami Heat in five games, Ingles still managed to average 17.8 MPG, 6.8 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 2.0 APG, and 0.6 SPG on 52.2% shooting from the field and 50.0% from three-point range.