Joe Ingles (art by Paul Munt)

The second day of the Toronto Raptors predraft workouts came and went, and no-one impaled himself – this is a good sign. But a number of prospects were able to show their stuff.

One of the names that stood out for me is the Australian Joe Ingles (I’m 1/32 Aussie, you see). Let’s get to know Joe a bit.

His vitals:

• Guard/Forward
• 6′8″, 194 lbs
• Born 10/02/1987

Analyzing the workout, HQ sez:

Ingles nearly declared last year but decided to withdraw in the end in order to beef up his game for this year’s draft. He’s incredibly long and at 6-7, has great size for the 2 guard spot, apparently the position he mostly plays, and is quite skilled offensively. I was a bit leery of his ability to play a guard position at first glance, wondering if his game wasn’t better suited for the 3 or 4, however in drills, he was absolutely lethal from long-range and also displayed some great one-on-one moves, at one point beating a much smaller and quicker defender and cramming it down. Ingles will need to bulk up a bit but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team taking a flyer on him late in the second-round and stashing him overseas for a while.

And my favorite Aussie blogger/local correspondent, Mookie, has this to say about Ingles:

Joe Ingles has been talking about heading for the draft since about 2 years ago — he knew he wanted to hold off until he was ready. He’s a long, lanky swingman — stands 6′8″ and has great ball handling skills for his size — think Steve Smith maybe? He can score in bunches, either from the 3pt line or driving to the hole, or even on runners. Can play 2/3 and a little 1 (though that would be limited at NBA level).

Weaknesses: too skinny — the rap has always been that he needed to put on weight (muscle), but the boy is naturally a skinny dude. I’m pretty sure (though I haven’t really watched him since about Sept 08) that he still hasn’t been able to put on that bulk. Also, from an NBA perspective he’d be considered lacking in athleticism (although in Australia or elsewhere he’s probably considered just average athleticism-wise).

I can’t remember how old he is now — I’m going to guess 20/21? — but he’s one of these guys that has played at a high level from a young age and so has an old head on young shoulders. Has played a starring role for his team (NBL champions last year) for the last couple of years… was rookie of the year in Oz a few years back. The other rookies of the year in recent times (Brad Newley – Houston/Panionios and Nathan Jawai – Toronto/D-League) went on to the NBA draft…

He went through the very respected Australian Institute of Sport as a scholarship holder — which means he got the best of training in fundamentals. He was a member of the Aussie Boomers Olympic team in Beijing, despite his tender years. He was mired on the bench, but impressed in the closing stages when he would get minutes, including about 8 points in 3 minutes vs Team USA from memory!  Good composure for a guy his age.

In short, my concern is that his lack of athleticism at the NBA level will see him overlooked… and that he will end up serving a nice little career in Europe. From memory his father has granted him a British passport… though I might be wrong on that.

British passport? Correct.

Eight points in three minutes vs. Team USA? Not sure, but Wikipedia said 11 points (on 100% shooting from the field!), 2 rebounds and 1 assist in the final quarter.

The latest article about Ingles on DX is less positive:

Perhaps the most disappointing player among those with realistic draft chances from the automatically eligible class of 1987, Joe Ingles hasn’t progressed as expected this season, not exploiting his intriguing physical and athletic characteristics. Indeed he has regressed in most statistical categories from last year, even from two seasons ago in some of them, which is not a good sign for a player of his age.

The most frustrating part of his game, and likely the biggest reason why he’s not emerging particularly efficient on the offensive end, is that he looks pretty soft when it comes to scoring. Despite his quickness and decent ball-handling skills (still strictly with his left hand), Ingles rarely goes all the way to the rim when attacking the basket, struggling to finish with contact and tending to prefer looking for space to release the ball, which leads to unbalanced shots and usual misses. It’s true that he doesn’t enjoy great strength or leaping ability, but it’s still a waste of his size. Instead he likes to settle for jumpers, but his shot is looking highly inconsistent, enjoying poor accuracy and not enough balance on his release. 55% of his field goal attempts come from beyond the arc this season, compared with just 40% last season, and he’s making just 36% of those, compared with 38% last year. His free throw attempts are also down, from 3.9 per game last season to 3.

Defensively, Ingles plays very upright and seems to have very little lateral quickness, which makes it very difficult to imagine him defending perimeter players in the NBA. In a league that will never be known for the quality of defense teams here display, Ingles isn’t doing much to change that reputation.

Ugh. The Raptors need to D up in a hurry, and Ingles doesn’t seem to D up that well. But DX did highlight some strengths:

[...] for some stretches he looks like an excellent passer, finding his teammates and even playing some casual point forward. However, if we were expecting a catalyst and team leader at this point, Ingles looks like a complimentary player out there, which is not particularly exciting if we talk about the Australian NBL. We should mention that he does play for a much better team this year (currently 20-7, and ranked first) than he did last year (where they finished last).

Expectations?

[...] unless he makes an impression in the pre-draft process, he’s a bubble guy at this point, with enough potential to get looks late in the second round, but also perfectly capable of ending up undrafted. His best bet might be to take his English passport and find a good team in Europe where he can develop his all-around game against a higher level of competition.

Have fun in Europe, Joe. Don’t forget to keep your defensive stance low and your chin up.

Other links:

• Draft Express profile
• Getting to Know: Joe Ingles
• South Dragons profile
• Boomers profile
• Live Q & A (November 2007)
• Facebook

UPDATE: Video highlights, courtesy of Mookie -

Plus a couple of interview clips.