After playing out his one-year deal worth $6.5 million with the Milwaukee Bucks, Joe Ingles will enter unrestricted free agency once again this off-season.
It was an up-and-down season for Ingles, who did not debut until December due to ACL surgery. Once he made his Bucks debut, it understandably took Ingles a while to get going, but once he did, he proved to be a quality bright spot for this team as a member of the second unit. It is now time to decide if Ingles’ time with the Bucks was just a one-year thing or if the two sides want to keep this thing going. With that said, let us look at the pros and cons of the Bucks keeping Ingles.
The pros of the Milwaukee Bucks keeping Joe Ingles
One of the reasons the Ingles signing was so interesting when it happened was that the Bucks had never had a player of his archetype during this era. Ingles could be another ball-handler to alleviate pressure off of the Big 3 and orchestrate the offense. On top of that, Ingles has been a knockdown outside shooter throughout his career. Having a player with that skill set could have been a valuable addition to this bench, which is precisely what happened.
Coming off his ACL injury, Ingles had a quality season by averaging 6.9 points and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 40.9 percent from three. He proved that he had plenty left in the tank and was a sparkplug offensively for this team all season long. Retaining a player who can facilitate, score, and shoot the long ball extremely well sounds like a no-brainer for the Bucks. It’s not that simple, but Ingles checks off a lot of the boxes regarding what the Bucks like in their players.
Keeping a savvy veteran with loads of playoff experience who is well-known as a marksman and excellent facilitator would make sense for the Bucks, who need help offensively.