Coming off a 51-win season and a second-round playoff appearance, the Utah Jazz made a name for themselves around the NBA as one of the hottest young teams in the league.

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And whilst free agency saw them retain Aussie Joe Ingles on a four-year $52 million deal, it also meant the departure of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward, his best friend on the team and the face of the franchise.

The bittersweet turn, from the outside looks to have set the Jazz’s ambitions back, but for Ingles all he sees is a new challenge.

“It means more opportunity for our young guys,” Ingles told NBA Australia.

“Donovan [Mitchell] will come in and get to play as a rookie which is rare and we’ll compete and move on.

“Obviously losing a player like Gordon is pretty big for a club, so we’ll have to find different ways to score and to get guys involved, but I’m pretty confident we’ve got the coaching staff that will be all over it.”

Hayward led the Jazz in both scoring (21.9 points per game) and minutes (34.5 per game), leaving a sizeable gap at the small forward position, but given Ingles’ impressive playoff performances on both sides of the ball, the Jazz have a solid option to absorb a lot of that pressure.

Whilst most would assume, Ingles would jump at the opportunity to cement himself in the Jazz’s starting line-up, the laid-back Australian is happy to make the leap, but only if it’s what’s best for the team.

“Starting or not I couldn’t really care less. I’ve started and not started my three years there. I started five games into it when I first got there and I’ve finished starting in the playoffs so I’ve done both.

“It’s not what my career [has been about] and my whole goals aren’t going to be set on starting or not, so whatever it is, I’m happy.

“There will be opportunities to start and if I do great. If I don’t, great, I’m not too worried, we’re going to be competitive.”

While Hayward’s decision to join the Boston Celtics dragged days past the beginning of free agency, into the fourth of July, Ingles doesn’t harbour any negativity towards the All-Star forward.

“I think for him it was kind of time for a change obviously, he needed some new challenges or whatever it was,” Ingles said.

“I’ve spoken to him. I kind of spoke to him throughout it to try and lend support or stay away whenever he kind of wanted and at the end of the day, we spoke after it and I mean making a decision like that, you’re not going to change friendships because of guys who have gone on different teams.

“He’s always going to be a good friend of mine but I still don’t like him for the time being because he left us, but we’ll be fine.”

Losing an elite player is never an easy pill to swallow for NBA teams, especially a small market like Utah, but with promising young perimeter players like Rodney Hood, Dante Exum and Donovan Mitchell waiting in the wings, Utah will look to the future to help ease the pain.

Meanwhile Ingles has his own plans to inflict a little on Hayward when the pair go head to head next season.

With the NBA schedule set to be released next month, Ingles has his eyes firmly set on the Jazz’s first date with Boston.

“I’m definitely guarding him,” Ingles said with a laugh.

“I’ve already told coach, I texted coach the next day and said between me and Donovan we’ll give him a good game.

“I might take his [Hayward’s] number, I might take number 20.”