Joe Ingles doesn't think teammate Donovan Mitchell wants to leave Jazz

One Utah Jazz player is responding to recent rumors about the potential for life without Donovan Mitchell.

Jazz forward Joe Ingles spoke with the media on Friday and addressed the claims that his star teammate Mitchell is supposedly unhappy in Utah.

“I don’t think Donovan wants to leave,” said Ingles, per Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune. “We see him every day, and he loves where he’s at, he loves our team. If they were … around us every day and heard him say he wants to leave, that’s completely different. But they’re not.”

The Jazz are having another strong regular season and own one of the better records in the league at 30-20. But they have still been unable to get through to the conference finals during the Mitchell era, begging the question of just how high Utah’s ceiling is with its longtime core.

Mitchell, in particular, is a New York native and has been the subject of some recent speculation that he could leave if one thing happens with Utah. Ingles and the rest of his teammates would likely notice though if Mitchell really had one foot out the door, and that does not appear to be the case here.