Joe Ingles had no idea how his body would adjust to playing regular minutes again in the NBL after limited court time the past two years, but nine games in he's feeling good and likes what Melbourne United are capable of.
Ingles' legacy is secured as one of Australian basketball's all-time great success stories for what he did starting out in the NBL at the South Dragons, across 12 NBA seasons and then as a five-time Olympian and bronze medallist with the Boomers.
But still, having only played a total of 299 minutes in 48 appearances over the past two NBA seasons at the Minnesota Timberwolves, the now 39-year-old still didn’t know how his body would handle playing a big role back on a team.
He remained confident that he could still play and contribute for Melbourne United on his NBL return, and he worked tirelessly to give his body the best chance to hold up, and so far, so good.
Ingles is now playing 24.9 minutes a game with Melbourne and producing 10.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.2 steals off the bench while shooting the ball at 60 per cent from the field and 43 per cent from deep.
Speaking after Sunday's 105-95 win against the Sydney Kings at John Cain Arena, Ingles opened up about how he was feeling coming into NBL27, and how it's going from his perspective so far.
"Maybe unlike a lot of people I was pretty confident in what I was going to be able to bring," Ingles said.
"I've never had to rely on certain things in the game that can affect the game but the last couple of years in Minnesota was tough not playing.
"Finchy (Chris Finch) and the team was awesome and it was a successful group, but I missed playing and that part of it a lot.
"I didn’t come in here having goals of what I wanted to do, I hadn’t played for two years so I had to work my way back into game shape.
"I worked my arse off and wanted to put my best foot forward in terms of what I can be, and then the rest of it is up to the coaching staff. I feel lucky to be part of this group and I'm really enjoying it.
"I'm enjoying competing and yelling at him (Jacob Chance) at practice when he's reffing and that's the stuff you miss when you're not playing.
"But I feel really good and I look forward to a couple of days off thanks to coach and we'll get ready to go again this weekend."
While Ingles is enjoying the basketball side of being back home in Melbourne, the bigger part of it for him is returning with wife Renae and their three children.
Being able to settle into life back in the city they now want to continue to call home following their time in Utah, Milwaukee, Orlando and Minnesota, and prior to that Spain, is what's making Ingles so content with the decision already.
"For us the big thing is being back home as a family in Melbourne around family and friends. I get to play with my kids sitting three or four rows behind the bench which is pretty special," Ingles said.
"I'm obviously very lucky to have a supportive wife who follows me around the world and has my back in all those decisions you're trying to make, and regardless of the basketball, the family side about coming home was big.
"We wanted to do that for our kids and the basketball is the cherry on the top, and I get to play for an awesome club, awesome coach and with an awesome group of guys.
"Then to be able to go to my kid's sports on the weekend and pick them up from the school, when we're not practicing too late, has been awesome and that's the part that I've obviously really enjoyed coming back here."
Another aspect of Sunday's game that made for a memorable occasion was Ingles being part of an NBL game with his former Dragons and Boomers coach Brian Goorjian for the first time.
Their competitive instincts quickly kicked in once the game was underway, but Ingles was glad to see his former mentor again and to see he's still doing what he loves.
"I mean I've seen him a lot in the off-seasons for a while and we've had some success there, but obviously I haven’t seen him for a little while so it was nice to see him even though we're on the other end so we want to kick his arse," Ingles said.
"Obviously he's a hell of a coach with the career he's had and we were in that same locker room that we're in now 17 years ago, and in the same building and there'll be some similar fans here too."
As for what's happening on the court this NBL season with Melbourne, they returned home for Sunday's game against the defending champion Kings at 3-5 and having lost their past two games by a total of three points.
The fact that Melbourne lost four of their five games by a total of seven points showed to Ingles that they have been doing a lot right, they just needed to execute better in the clutch moments.
They produced a tremendous performance just about for 40 minutes on Sunday to beat the Kings by 10 points with Ingles feeling like it was their best effort so far of NBL27.
"Obviously we've won in Melbourne but not in front of our home fans but we've done a lot of good over this early part of the year and it hasn’t all shown up in results," Ingles said.
"We've been close and those three or four games have come down to the last possession so we've been pretty consistent with what we've been working on and I think if you do that for a long period of time the results will fall your way.
"We've done a lot of good stuff so it was nice for that to play out a bit better on our side in front of our home fans tonight, and we have to get ready to do it again next weekend.
"Consistently it was probably our best effort over 40 minutes and everyone played their role, and stepped up."