After signing a one-year contract with the Jazz during the 2019 offseason, Emmanuel Mudiay didn’t play a major role in Utah. His 15.7 minutes per game represented a career low and he fell out of the team’s rotation in the postseason.
Still, Mudiay tells Brandon Robinson on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show that his year with the Jazz was “great” and that he “learned a lot” from head coach Quin Snyder and top assistant Johnnie Bryant. The veteran point guard added that he’d be open to a new deal with the club if the opportunity arises.
“Like I said, they taught me so much,” Mudiay said of the Jazz. “The staff was amazing; I have nothing negative to say about Utah, everything was great. So if it’s there, it’s definitely something that I’ll look into. I’m not about to make a decision right now, but definitely, like I said before, the team was great and that’s definitely something that I’ll reconsider for sure.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- In addition to confirming the previously-reported hire of Dell Demps as an assistant coach, the Jazz announced in a press release that they’ve added former NBA guard Keyon Dooling to Quin Snyder‘s staff as a player development coach. Dooling previously worked for the NBPA as a wellness counselor and mental health advocate.
- In a pair of columns for The Oklahoman, Berry Tramel makes the case that the Bulls’ future isn’t necessarily brighter than the Thunder‘s despite Billy Donovan‘s decision to leave Oklahoma City for Chicago, and explains how the Clippers’ split with Doc Rivers could indirectly help the Thunder.
- Danny Leroux of The Athletic and John Hollinger of The Athletic each preview the Nuggets‘ upcoming offseason decisions, with Hollinger explaining why Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee, and Torrey Craig may all end up not returning to Denver for 2020/21.
- Determining where Gary Harris and Will Barton stand going forward will be among the Nuggets‘ most pressing offseason questions, writes Mike Singer of The Denver Post.
It’s weird thinking of a 23 year old as a “veteran point guard.” I know he has played 5 years in the league and qualifies as a vet, but Mudiay doesn’t really scream “veteran presence” to me.
Since the NBA switched to one and done, the success rates for players skipping college altogether and going overseas for a year is not great. When Brandon Jennings is the biggest star of the group, you might not have a great argument. I don’t know whether college would have helped Mudiay become a better player, but I do know that going overseas didn’t seem to help him. The jury is still out on many of the players, but none of them seem like they are going to amount to much more than Mudiay. That’s not counting LaMelo or Hampton from this year’s class of course. But it is a scary track record thus far.
One side note, there were concerns Mudiay would be ineligible at SMU which contributed to his decision…
That is a fair point. Although it is also fair to wonder about the work ethic of someone that is unable or unwilling to get to the minimum acceptable standard to get into a state university. It’s not like you have to be anywhere close to a genius to get into college nowadays. I don’t know if I would want to invest millions of dollars into that type of person.
USA colleges provide the best honing experience for BBers, regardless of any academic duties required. But if that is not appreciated, too bad.
The world soccer world has been discovering American colleges… Unfortunately just the women, who are not consistently a part of the sports academy culture that are used for male players. Turns out the former US college players are doing the best, comparatively, and teams having the most, beat the odds the most in World Cup play.
The USMNT did best when they were based on US college players and attitude. Then they hired German Klinsmann and he looked for German minor-leaguers and the USMNT broke their string of playing over their heads. They are still well under.