Joe Ingles is about to join his fourth NBA team in as many years.
“F–k, too many,” Ingles said on Thursday night, when asked how many teams he’s been on now.
“You know the crazy thing is I only wanted to play for one. I really just wanted to play for one.”
The latest team to acquire the services of Ingles are the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance and do have a need for the shooting skillset of the veteran Australian wing.
In joining the Timberwolves, Ingles reunites with Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert, who he played alongside at the Utah Jazz, on a team that’s no stranger to recruiting him.
“They actually tried to get me last year as well,” Ingles said of the Timberwolves.
“A part of it [was] having the interest for more than just: Kyle Anderson leaves and hey you can help us. Last year, they went pretty hard as well and we decided Orlando. Playing with Mike again will be awesome, obviously I know Rudy, and then helping these other guys to keep getting better.”
Ingles’ daughter and Conley’s son attended school together when the two played in Utah, so there’s already a series of existing relationships between Ingles and the current makeup of the Timberwolves’ roster.
That also extends to his new head coach, Chris Finch. The pair butted heads in international play when Finch was head coach of the Great Britain’s men’s national team, in a warmup game ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
“He brought [it] up. That competitive [nature] is always gonna be there. To have another chance at that, on obviously a really good team, will be fun,” Ingles said.
The native of Adelaide is coming off a season with the Orlando Magic, where he averaged 4.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game, while shooting 43.5 percent from downtown. Ingles, who’ll be 37 by the time the 2024-25 NBA regular season begins, is currently in contention to make the Australian Boomers’ team ahead of Paris 2024, in what would be his fifth Olympics.
The Timberwolves are seemingly a team on the rise, coming off a 56-26 regular season, before advancing to the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, guided by their budding superstar in Anthony Edwards.
Like Ingles, Edwards has made a name for himself as one of the NBA’s most prolific and entertaining trash-talkers, but the Australian says he has no plans to poke his new teammate.
“He’s good,” Ingles said of Edwards’ trash talk. “I’ll save it for someone else.
[But], it’s exciting. It’s obviously a really good team. Western Conference finals this year. Just going in there fully understanding the role they have for me. Trying to help Rudy, trying to help Ant, trying to help all these guys get better and hopefully go further.
“When the opportunity came up and you speak more in depth about the basketball side, especially with the stuff I’m saying – you still wanna play, you still wanna compete – it’s a basketball opportunity that was too good to give up.”