This being Dante Exum’s fifth season with the Jazz and Raul Neto’s fourth, there was hope that the minutes starting point guard Ricky Rubio spent on the bench would be in solid and capable hands.
It’s hard to make that argument, though, after Utah’s just-completed three-game road trip.
If it was memorable for Exum, then it was so for the wrong reasons: a total of 8 minutes and 48 seconds played, one point scored, 0-for-3 shooting, one assist, three turnovers, and one dreaded “DNP—CD.”
The 23-year-old from Melbourne, Australia signed a three-year contract this summer worth up to $33 million, with the idea that he’d be the primary backup to Rubio, that he’d be a defensive force in the backcourt, that his game-changing speed would make him a stalwart on the team’s second unit.