Joe Ingles, Danuel House Jr. have new NBA destinations

In the early minutes of the NBA’s free agency period officially opening Thursday, two wings who were previously with the Utah Jazz were reported to be signing with new teams.

Longtime Jazzman Joe Ingles, who was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in February in a cost-cutting move for Utah, is signing a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, while Danuel House Jr., who was with the Jazz for just a few months, is reportedly signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.

In a twist from the usual sources of information getting leaked but in classic Ingles family fashion, Joe’s wife Renae broke the news of his signing on Twitter.

Yahoo’s Chris Haynes later reported that the deal will be worth $6.5 million.

The news of House’s signing, meanwhile, was first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

A minute later, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the terms of the deal: two years for $8.5 million.

For Ingles, going to the Bucks gives him an opportunity for a fresh start on a championship contender that he should be able to help once he recovers from the ACL tear he suffered in late January.

As far as House is concerned, he was added by the Jazz last winter as the team was dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19 but quickly became one of Utah’s most important wing defenders and thus would have been expensive for the Jazz to keep.

The Jazz will certainly need to address that wing defense as free agency continues. It was already a glaring weakness before Thursday, and then Utah traded a good wing defender in Royce O’Neale to the Brooklyn Nets for a future draft pick and then lost House to the 76ers.