After a busy Wednesday that saw the Utah Jazz come to terms with free agents Thabo Sefolosha and Jonas Jerebko, the team made a trifecta early Thursday morning.
At 2:46 a.m. MDT, The Vertical's Shams Charania reported that the Jazz had reached an agreement on a two-year, $6.5 million contract with big man Ekpe Udoh, a former NBA lottery pick who most recently starred in Turkey. The Deseret News confirmed the news.
For Utah, the addition of the 6-foot-10, 245-pound Udoh is yet another example of the front office's defensive-first approach this offseason. The Jazz were already one of the better defensive teams in the NBA last season, but Sefolosha and Udoh, along with new point guard Ricky Rubio and draftee Donovan Mitchell, have shown to be effective in that department as well.
From a roster standpoint, Udoh will join a frontline that includes Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors, Jerebko, Joe Johnson, Joel Bolomboy and Tony Bradley.
Utah now has 14 guaranteed contracts for the 2017-2018 season, with approximately $106.7 million committed in salary. Raul Neto has a nonguaranteed deal in place for approximately $1.5 million. Teams can have a maximum of 15 players on their roster.
As for Udoh, his basketball path has been an interesting one. After two years of college ball at Michigan, the Edmond, Oklahoma, native transferred to Baylor for one season and wound up getting selected sixth overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2010 NBA draft, ahead of players such as Gordon Hayward and Paul George.
He lasted less than two seasons with the Warriors, however, playing in only 96 games and averaging less than five points and four rebounds per contest. He then played three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and one with the Los Angeles Clippers.
In all, Udoh finished those six seasons averaging 4.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks over the course of 270 games.
The now-30-year-old Udoh then took his game to Turkey, where he enjoyed a resurgence over the last two years while playing for Fenerbahce. In 2016, he was named to the All-EuroLeague second team as his squad won the championship, and in 2017 he was named EuroLeague Final Four MVP as Fenerbahce defended its title.
Udoh also garnered All-EuroLeague first-team honors in 2017 and was named a Turkish League All-Star.
During the Final Four, Mike Schmitz of DraftExpress wrote about Udoh, noting how his game is more suited for the NBA now than it was even just a few years ago.
"More than anything, Udoh's Euroleague Final Four dominance emphasized the importance of having a big who can switch ball screens when involved in pick and roll, and put a lid on the rim when he's in help position," Schmitz wrote.
On June 30, right before the NBA's free agency period was set to open, Udoh was profiled in The New York Times by Patrick Kingsley, with the focus of the piece being how he had embraced Turkey.
“There have been many American basketball players in Turkey since the 1980s, and they were also talented, but Ekpe is different because of his relationship with the fans,” Caner Eler, the editor of Socrates, Turkey’s leading sports magazine, was quoted as saying. “He has a beautiful awareness of the other sides of life, outside sports.”