When the Utah Jazz traded Joe Ingles to the Portland Trail Blazers in February, there was talk that Ingles could return to play for the Jazz next season since he will be a free agent this summer.
On Wednesday, however, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer reported that Ingles “could return to the Trail Blazers following his trade-deadline move to Portland, although Ingles appears to have plenty of interest from other teams.”
The 34-year-old Ingles (he’ll be 35 on Oct. 2, a few weeks before the 2022-23 NBA season starts) saw a significant decline in his production last season before he tore his left ACL in late January and was traded less than two weeks later.
That said, he could still be a solid veteran presence for a team even though chances are high he’ll miss the beginning of the season; in between suffering the injury and getting traded, he told reporters he had no plans of calling it quits.
Fischer also reported a number of other items Wednesday related to the Jazz and other Utah ties in the NBA:
- Speaking of Portland, he reported that the Trail Blazers are “expected to offer” former Weber State star Damian Lillard a two-year contract extension that will be more than $100 million in total.
- Fischer wrote that “Toronto continues to monitor the availability of several elite centers, sources said, including Utah Jazz All-Star Rudy Gobert.”
- The Washington Wizards, Fischer wrote, have been seen as a potential landing spot for former University of Utah guard Delon Wright, although after the story was published, the Wizards made a trade with the Denver Nuggets and landed point guard Monte Morris, potentially putting them out of contention for Wright.
- Fischer wrote that another former Ute who is already on the Wizards, Kyle Kuzma, could be available in a trade. Fischer had included Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in that same sentence, and he was later involved in the trade with the Nuggets.