The Jazz have waived Bryce Cotton and Treveon Graham, the team announced (Twitter link). The moves reduce Utah to 15 players, the regular season limit, ostensibly a sign that Jeff Withey, Chris Johnson and Elijah Millsap will stick around for opening night despite the lack of full guarantees on their respective contracts. Graham has a $75K partial guarantee on his salary, though it’s more surprising to see Utah release Cotton and his non-guaranteed deal, since the move leaves the Jazz with only two healthy point guards.
Cotton totaled 13 points but just one assist against three turnovers in more than 34 minutes of action combined over two preseason games. The 23-year-old was a holdover from last season, when he joined the Jazz on a pair of 10-day contracts and eventually a deal for the rest of the season that included non-guaranteed salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17. Graham, a 21-year-old swingman, signed a three-year deal with the Jazz in August after going undrafted out of VCU in June. He scored one point in more than 18 minutes of preseason action. The length of their respective deals makes it unlikely a team claims them off waivers, since many teams can’t claim any deal that runs longer than two.
The Jazz have 12 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, plus Withey on a $200K partial guarantee. Johnson and Millsap don’t have any guaranteed salary. Utah isn’t obligated to carry more than 13 players for opening night, though most teams keep 15. Still, Johnson and Millsap will be in tenuous position until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. That’s especially so if the Jazz decide they want more depth at the point. Shooting guard Alec Burks seems likely to see time handling the ball in the meantime.
Surprised cotton was released
Because it leaves them thin at point guard, or because of him specifically?
Both
Cotton was a scoring machine at Providence, but I’m not sure he’ll be able to translate his game to the NBA. Hope he does though, really enjoyed watching him during the NCAA tourney a few years back when he went up against UNC.
I didn’t think they were going to let go of Cotton. Perhaps the Jazz have faith that Burke and Neto can soak up nearly all the minutes at the point. Neto is particular should be intriguing.
Waiving Bryce Cotton is not personal or a reflection of his ability, Utah Jazz is moving toward a system where traditional positions don’t mean much, but this require all the players to have some height so they can guard positions 1 to 5, also the team doesn’t rely on their PGs to initiate & run plays, they have wings & forwards that can do that just as well if not better.