Joe Ingles consulted with Pelicans’ JJ Redick about his move to the bench

As Joe Ingles transitioned to his new role off the bench this season, he had a lot of support at his disposal—coaching staff, teammates, and training staff—but one person that people may not have known about is New Orleans Pelicans’ JJ Redick. In his weekly show on 1280 the Zone, Joe Ingles credited talks he had with JJ Redick in helping him adjust to his sixth man role.

“I was actually talking to JJ Redick the other day about,” said Ingles talking about his talk with JJ. “He’s started the last 6 years and is coming off the bench this year. We were talking about how different it is. About how in your mind you gotta adjust. Physically it’s different. Cuz you get warmed up and after that first stretch, how long you stay on the bench to start.”

Joe Ingles mentioned how different it is to start and come off the bench. Joe Ingles says he likes the differences.

“I was very comfortable in that role. I liked starting. I liked matching up with the best of best players who got the start. Taking on that challenge. I think the cool part, at least it is for me,” Joe Ingles said referencing coming off the bench. “You get to watch the game. Read the game. See how the referees are calling it. See how the other team is playing defensively. Seeing what they’re doing offensively. ... There’s a very different way of going about it.”

As we saw in last night’s game, some things on offense were a work in process. Quin Snyder was right that most of the problems on the defensive end in preseason were due to attention to detail and lack of focus. Offensively, it may be up and down for the first few games. Why? Apparently, Utah hasn’t even begun to add the complexities to their offense that they had last season due to the new personnel.

“Offensively, we just gotta figure it out along the way. Like we said we figured out what was working,” Joe Ingles told 1280 The Zone when analyzing last night’s offensive performance. “Realistically, too, we’ve only got a very small part of our offensive package that we’ve had over the few years. Getting these new guys in and getting them comfortable with the system, we’ve only put a little bit of stuff in. As we get more comfortable we add more stuff and find more easy ways to score.”

There were times last night that Utah looked flat out dominant offensively. As Utah gets more comfortable, adds more complex sets, and Mike Conley never goes 1-Infinity from the field again, the Jazz will be one of the premier offensives in the league.

If you’d like to hear the entirety of the show, listen below.