Point guard and restricted free agent Dante Exum will still call Salt Lake City his NBA home for the foreseeable future, as he has agreed to a new deal worth $33 million and spanning three years with the Utah Jazz, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Utah Jazz restricted free agent Dante Exum has agreed to a three-year, $33M contract extension, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2018
Exum has yet to take full flight in the NBA years after the Jazz used a No. 5 pick to select him back in the 2014 NBA Draft. While still a promising player, Exum has been bugged by health problems which have limited him to only 80 games in the last three seasons. Moreover, he has only appeared in a total of 162 games out of a possible 328 contests since entering the league.
However, the Jazz are still clearly sold on the potential of Exum, who missed the entire 2015-16 season to recover from a torn ACL injury.
Exum is still just 22 and, when healthy, can give Jazz quality minutes on the floor. He played in 14 games last season and averaged 8.1 points, 3.1 assists, and 1.9 rebounds. He played 10 games in this year’s playoffs and put up 5.1 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in 11.4 minutes per contest.
The Australian is part of the Jazz’s young backcourt that also features Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell. It’s also possible that the Jazz intended to sign him to a new deal as a backup plan should they part ways with Rubio at the end of the 2018-19 season, when the Spanish court general is expected to hit the free agent market.
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