League Pass Favorites: Joe Ingles plays at his own speed

In the high-flying, fast-paced world that is the NBA, Joe Ingles plays at a speed of his own. While the majority of players of his size use their athleticism, length and power to create advantages, Ingles does so almost entirely through intelligence, deception and a goofy, deadly lefty jumpshot. Because he lacks the speed and explosiveness of most of his peers, he must outsmart or out-position them, and there is a fun suspense in waiting to see how he chooses to do so each trip down the floor.

Watching Ingles play is one of the most profound joys of the NBA League Pass experience.

On any given possession, the offensive player knows where he’s going, while his defender does not. In theory, this gives the offense the upper hand, and no one profits from that dynamic like Ingles, who routinely uses his man’s motion against him. He’ll get some overzealous wing to commit just a little bit too far in one direction, then reverse course to spring open for a 3:

Ingles leads the league in 3-point percentage with one of the zaniest strokes in the NBA, and off-ball movement is an essential piece of his game. Nearly all of his triples are categorized as “open” or “wide open” by NBA.com, a testament to Utah’s offense and Ingles’ fit within it.

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He’s also a capable playmaker — he functionally plays point guard when both Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell sit — and uses the same sort of movement and deception with the ball in his hands. One go-to maneuver: initially rejecting a ball screen, then going back the other way and running his man into the pick:

Ingles is so crafty and unhurried that he almost uses those qualities to toy with his defender. Squint your eyes, and he resembles a slowed-down Manu Ginobili, from the ball fakes and canny passing right down to the his eccentric jumpshot. Ingles is less ballsy and frenetic, but he uses many of the same tricks as his wily lefty predecessor. He’ll whip passes across the court from all angles and zip them through tight spaces. He’s an expert at looking off help defenders as he winds up to pass, only to dish elsewhere:

Ginobili is the original practitioner of that pass:

Ingles doesn’t have terrorizing downhill speed, but he still poses a threat coming off a pick-and-roll with space in front of him. Once he gets an advantage he doesn’t give it up, turning it directly into a scoring opportunity for himself or moving the ball to a teammate to exploit the edge that he created. At 6-foot-8, he’s big enough to carve out space and keep a defender on his hip, and he throws off the timing of help defenders with off-rhythm finishes:

He plays off of Rudy Gobert’s gravity, and the two have developed a nice synergy since Gobert returned from injury. The threat of a lob makes defenses wary of leaving the big Frenchman; Ingles leverages that into avenues to the basket or kickout passes along the perimeter. His ball fakes freeze even the most imposing rim protectors:

Sometimes, he achieves the same effect with a glance at a teammate and the subtlest of hesitations. Watching Ingles calmly mosey around the floor while defenders scramble to stay with him almost has an unintentionally comedic effect. And when he burns someone, he lets them know; he’s sneakily one of the game’s foremost trash-talkers.

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Ingles is a major reason why the Jazz have remained in the playoff hunt. He has arguably been Utah’s most consistent offensive player and a net positive on defense despite his athletic limitations. He grades out positively by nearly every advanced metric and ranks among the most efficient players in the league. Ingles won’t singlehandedly make the Jazz a contender — Gobert is its stabilizing pillar and Mitchell looks like its cornerstone — but he’s exactly the sort of delightful complementary player that solidifies the team and makes for a compelling night-to-night watch.