TUESDAY, 11:08am: The signing is official, the Jazz announced.
MONDAY, 1:19pm: The Jazz are poised to sign point guard Bryce Cotton to a 10-day contract, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Cotton has been playing with San Antonio’s D-League affiliate since the Spurs dropped him from their NBA roster at the end of training camp. The Jazz are reportedly discussing a deal with draft-and-stash prospect Tibor Pleiss as well, but Utah has two open roster spots, so Cotton’s deal won’t necessarily interfere with that.
Cotton reportedly turned down several offers to play in Europe that came his way earlier this season in hopes of landing the NBA deal that he now appears to have. The 22-year-old who went undrafted out of Providence this past June has put up 22.6 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 40.3 minutes per game for the D-League Austin Spurs. He’s also corralled an impressive 4.8 rebounds considering his 6’1″ height.
The Spurs gave Cotton a $50K partial guarantee on the deal that brought him to San Antonio’s training camp, so he’s already made more in NBA salary than the $29,843 that a standard 10-day contract would give him. The Jazz have familiarity with him, since he worked out for the team prior to the draft, as Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune notes (on Twitter). He’s set to become the fourth player the Jazz have signed to a 10-day deal this season, as our 10-Day Contract Tracker shows.