Getty Joe Ingles of the Milwaukee Bucks goes up for a layup.
With veteran big man Kevin Love hitting the buyout market, the Miami Heat are expected to pursue him, but some analysts are looking a bit further down the road to the coming summer.
In his February 16 column for Bleacher Report, Dan Favale listed one potential free agent each NBA squad should pursue in free agency this summer. For the Heat, he chose current Milwaukee Bucks forward Joe Ingles.
“The Heat need half-court-offense safety valves just as much as they need to fortify the 4 spot. Joe Ingles can do both,” Favale wrote. “He provides secondary ball-handling and outside shooting—albeit not at his previously mind-melting clips—and he’s still roving across three to four positions on defense.”
Ingles will be a free agent at the end of the season. He signed a one-year deal with the Bucks worth just under $6.5 million in 2022, and Favale thinks Miami could potentially get him for even less than that this summer.
Favale: Ingles Will Be Cheaper Than Jae Crowder or Torrey Craig
Favale thinks Ingles could be a quality bang-for-your-buck player, and he posited Miami’s likely spending would be in the mini-MLE (mid-level exception) range, which is available to teams that are over the luxury tax threshold, or squads who don’t want to use the full MLE.
“Crossing their fingers for someone like Craig or Crowder to tumble into Mini MLE Land is always an option,” Favale noted, adding: “Ingles will be entering his age-36 season. He may not command even a huge chunk of the mini MLE. And even if he does, he may be more apt to accept a short-term agreement without any player control at the end. Coupled with the extra pizzazz he imbues into the half-court offense, he represents the better combination of gettable and needed.”
The mini-MLE for the Heat should be somewhere around $5.5 million and can be used to sign a contract for up to three seasons. It’s highly unlikely players like Crowder would come as cheap.
Ingles Had Slow Start to Season Due to Injury
Remember those people who said Joe Ingles couldn’t come back from a torn ACL at age 35 … yeah, me neither 💯🇦🇺🏀💪
Ingles spent his first eight seasons with the Utah Jazz, and he suffered a torn ACL in January of 2022, which forced him to miss the remainder of his 2021-22 campaign. He also missed the first few months of the 2022-23 season and has been slowly working his way back into Milwaukee’s rotation. He just played a season-high 31 minutes in the Bucks’ 131-125 win over the Boston Celtics on February 14.
The 35-year-old forward didn’t play until December 19, and he has seen his minutes increase every month since. So far this season, Ingles has appeared in 24 games for the Bucks in a reserve role only. He is averaging 6.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 22.5 minutes of action in his lone year with Milwaukee (stats courtesy of Basketball Reference). He’s shooting a solid 35.2% from beyond the arc and 84.6% from the free-throw line, and it’s clear he’s still an excellent passer and distributor:
Joe Ingles and his passing is gonna be an important playoff piece for the Bucks
Ingles isn’t the player he used to be, but he’s still a solid rotational piece and would make a decent — and affordable — addition to Miami’s roster. A lot can happen between now and the summer, but it’s an intriguing idea.