The Utah Jazz, after such a strong start to the 2022-23 season, have fallen way off the playoff pace en route to a lottery pick in the stacked 2023 NBA Draft. With an eye towards the future, the Jazz are evaluating which members of the current roster can contribute to their quest of building a sustainable contending outfit for years to come.

And the Jazz want this former first-round pick to stick around until, at least, the end of the 2023-24 campaign. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Jazz have signed forward Luka Samanic to a deal until the end of next season. While the full details of his new contract aren't out yet, the deal appears to be non-guaranteed, as Wojnarowski tweeted that his deal would include trigger dates for contract guarantees.

The road Samanic took to get to where he is now is certainly an unorthodox one, especially for a player who's just four years into his career. Even with the San Antonio Spurs, the team that drafted him 19th overall in 2019, affording him plenty of chances to stick around, Samanic didn't seem to impress, leading to his eventual release in 2021.

Luka Samanic then signed a two-way contract with the New York Knicks for the 2021-22 campaign, but failed to play even a single minute of action even though the entire league went through a COVID-ravaged period around December 2021. He then spent the first few months of the 2022-23 campaign impressing with the Maine Red Claws of the G-League, averaging 22 points and eight rebounds in 26 contests.

This eventually led to Samanic's late-season acquisition by the Jazz, who clearly became impressed with the Croatian forward's progression in the G-League.

The Jazz have certainly given Luka Samanic lots of opportunities to impress, and clearly, the Jazz saw him as someone worth keeping. With the Jazz facing a plethora of injury woes to their core players, Samanic has played a huge part in their rotation as of late, even starting the past two games.

Samanic is only 23 years old, and the potential that made him a first rounder remains. At 6'10, Samanic can have a long NBA career especially if he proves that concerns regarding his motor are a thing of the past.