SALT LAKE CITY — After Friday’s shootaround, Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder said the most positive thing about the preceding 10 days of Jazz camp was that everyone on the team was relatively healthy.
Little did Snyder know that a few hours later his comments would come back to haunt him.
Because in the first quarter of Friday night’s victory over Phoenix, the health of the team took a blow when fourth-year guard Dante Exum, who had been a standout in the first two Jazz games of the season, went down with an injury to his left shoulder that may keep him out several weeks.
The Jazz had no update on Exum’s status Sunday after team officials confirmed that he had an MRI and the team was in the process of gathering more opinions. But reading between the lines of postgame comments by Snyder and some of the Jazz players, it appeared that the injury is significant.
It brought back bad memories of last year when several Jazz players, from Gordon Hayward to George Hill to Derrick Favors to Alec Burks, sat out for long stretches with injuries.
Utah didn’t practice Sunday and headed to Phoenix Sunday for another game with the Suns Monday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Then it’s off to Los Angeles for a game against the Lakers.
For the Jazz, it will mark the fourth and fifth games in a little more than a week, and then they’ll have a full week with no games before the regular season-opener (Oct. 18 vs. Denver). So Snyder is trying to juggle playing time with rest for his players before the real season begins.
“We have a lot of games in a short span and then a lot of time off, so we want to make sure we’re not overdoing it with guys right now, coming out of camp,” Snyder said. “You approach preseason a little differently than the regular season. Every preseason game changes a little bit. A back-to back is different than having days of rest between.”
The Jazz will have 16 back-to-back sets this year, so this back-to-back will be good practice for the upcoming season, particularly early on. The Jazz play two sets of back-to-backs in the first week of the season. That’s where Utah’s depth will come in handy, despite not having Exum available.
While Exum’s injury is bad news for the Jazz team, it will mean more minutes for two Jazz players in particular — rookie Donovan Mitchell and veteran Alec Burks. Both players will see increased minutes as Exum, besides being the backup point guard to Ricky Rubio, was expected to play significant minutes at the off-guard position, something he did late last season and in the playoffs.
Now Mitchell is likely to see more minutes at the point guard position, which he played at times with Louisville last season, as well as at the 2 guard, while Burks will likely see more minutes with Exum out.
Another beneficiary is third-year guard Raul Neto, who has been among three players hovering on the cut line, along with second-year forward Joel Bolomboy and newcomer Royce O’Neal. Now all three are likely to make the 15-man opening-day roster. Neto has missed the last two games with tightness in his left quad.
Speaking of Bolomboy, he has been especially impressive in the preseason so far, scoring 30 points in just 25 minutes of action.
“He’s being decisive and not trying to think through plays, he’s just competing,” Snyder said. “Joel’s a tough kid and he cares. His decisiveness on the shot — he’s a good 3-point shooter, and there’s no hesitation on that.”