The Bucks spent their $6.479MM taxpayer midlevel exception on forward Joe Ingles over the summer despite the fact he was rehabbing from a torn ACL after undergoing surgery in February.
Ingles is “close” to making his Milwaukee debut, coach Mike Budenholzer told Eric Nehm of The Athletic on Sunday (Twitter link). Ingles has been assigned to the G League Wisconsin Herd twice this week for practice reps.
“I think it’s fair to say he’s getting close. I mean, if you’re playing with our G League group and you’re playing five on five and live action — but again, part of the questions towards the end of (Khris Middleton‘s rehab) is, you’ve got to get to a conditioning level to be ready to play in an NBA game,” Budenholzer said. “You’ve got to get kind of, I would say, a significant number of reps of just playing and doing things and building up just everything it takes to go into playing an NBA game. So, hopefully, somewhere there is an answer for you.”
Middleton made his season debut on Dec. 2 after rehabbing from wrist surgery. Middleton suffered a minor left ankle sprain in a loss to Houston on Sunday, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets.
Over the summer, Ingles expressed optimism he could get back in action by mid-December. It appears that timetable is just about right, though Budenholzer was vague regarding how much conditioning Ingles would require before he’ll suit up.
Ingles was dealt to Portland at the trade deadline in February after he was injured but never suited up for the Trail Blazers. All 590 of his career NBA games came with the Jazz. He averaged 7.2 points and 3.5 assists in 24.9 minutes while appearing in 45 games last season.
Ingles could become a valuable reserve, especially with wings Pat Connaughton and Jordan Nwora both struggling offensively.
I wrote that Joe Ingles was done when he suffered his ACL injury considering his age. Good for him to come back this way and with such a great team.
He’ll probably have an impact in the playoffs with his IQ, shooting, size, and unselfishness. Fantastic man in the locker room as well. Good for him.
If he could teach Nwora how to play basketball at all he will be his contract. How that kid has been on a NBA team is beyond my understanding
I agree. But someone is bound to tell us that his PER on the second of back to back road games is outstanding, or when he makes a completely random start because 4 of the top 6 guys are sitting out due to injury, rest or whatever, he averages 18 and 8.
And guys like that are rare, or something.
Nwora looks stiff and clueless a lot of the time. Very telling that, earlier this year, Bud was giving more run to Beauchamp than Nwora. Bud almost never plays rookies.