10:31pm: Ingles is also receiving significant interest from the Grizzlies, plus, he has a meeting scheduled with the Clippers on Saturday, Adam Joseph of 16WinsARing.com tweets.
7:59pm: It may not be long before Jazz forward Joe Ingles has a $60MM contract in front of him, Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post writes. The scribe tweets that he’s heard the Australian free agent could have a four-year deal in the $60MM range coming from the Magic.
If that’s the case, Bontemps adds, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the Jazz would match the restricted free agent’s new price tag.
Per Sean Deveney of the Sporting News, new Magic general manager John Hammond has long been a fan of the sharpshooting forward and this could be a significant early move for the new regime.
As Tim MacMahon of ESPN notes, there are two significant Jazz-specific takeaways from the rumored Magic offer, one being that Ingles is said to be close friends with fellow free agent Gordon Hayward, the other being that they’re represented by the same agent.
Those factors, coupled with Utah’s move earlier today to land Ricky Rubio at the likely expense of free agent George Hill (another Hayward favorite) lend credence to the notion that Hayward’s time with the Jazz may be coming to an end.
Hayward aside, Ingles is a widely respected small forward that offers a suite of intangible contributions in addition to his 7.2 points per game and 44.1% three-point shot. That said, given that the Magic were expected to lay low during free agency, such a move is somewhat surprising.
I like Joe Ingles. Whoever Picks him Up is getting a pretty darn good player. He defended Klay Thompson pretty well in the playoffs. Nice pick up for whoever gets him.
I really like his game too. But not for 4/$60MM. He’ll be 30 when the season starts