SALT LAKE CITY — Seventy-seven prospects entered Zions Bank Basketball Campus for pre-draft workouts from May 4 all the way up until five days ahead of Thursday’s NBA Draft.
College of Charleston forward Jarrell Brantley was among the final dozen to visit the Utah Jazz’s practice facility, in group session 2 of the workouts, on June 15 before the Jazz made a draft day deal with Indiana to land him at No. 50 from Indiana.
“Little bit crazy in the second round trying to move into position,” Jazz general manager Justin Zanik admitted after the draft.
Three picks later, Utah selected the NCAA’s second-leading scorer, Justin Wright-Foreman of New York’s Hostra University, at No. 53, who averaged 27.1 points per game as a senior, then traded for Yale shooting guard Miye Oni at No. 58 from the Golden State Warriors before the conclusion of the night.
“All those guys, we’re really excited to have them and they fit what we’re looking for as far as Jazz players now and going forward,” Zanik said. “Any time that you can add skill, athleticism, high character, high motor, size for the position in a couple of the positions and then special scoring instincts with Justin Wright-Foreman.
“All three of those things, whether that’s in the draft, being aggressive in free agency and the continued great developmental our coaching staff is doing to really get guys for them that we really think have a chance to get better and they have an opportunity to get better,” he added.
Oni, the Ivy League Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons, never visited Utah but was interviewed during the NBA combine after posting 17.1 points and 6.3 boards as a junior.
Wright-Foreman was also brought in for a pre-draft workout on May 26 where he relished the challenge of competing against some elite competition and stood out as the reigning Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons.
“I go to a mid-major school, Hofstra University, so we don’t really get as many chances to go against the top competition, so just to be out here and go against these guys and compete the way that I do is fantastic,” Wright-Foreman told reporters following his workout session.
“I learned that I’m a hard worker and I can compete,” he continued. “That’s all I can do. Control what you can control, I controlled my energy and my effort and that’s about it.”
These second-round selections were done one day after the organization’s big splash by trading for veteran floor general Mike Conley Jr.
It’s the reason why Utah also selected former McDonald’s All-American Darius Bazley at 23rd overall, but that pick was sent to Oklahoma City from Memphis as part of the Conley Jr. deal, also in exchange for Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder and former first-round pick Grayson Allen.
That trade won’t become official on July 6 after the NBA moratorium ends, though.
Bazley did speak to the Jazz front office ahead of the draft as well, according to a Deseret News source, and was close to becoming the first player to ever jump straight to the G League from high school where the Salt Lake City Stars held the top pick.
Ultimately, Bazley chose to skip that option to train all year for the 2019 NBA Draft, then accepted a three-month internship, worth $1 million, with New Balance in Massachusetts, which is ironic that Utah would somehow be tied to his NBA journey yet again.
“I was gonna go to the G League, but after talking to my agent (Rich Paul) and my mom, we just thought that wasn’t best for me and to sit out a year,” Bazley told the Deseret News during the NBA Draft Combine in May. “It wasn’t really a long process, it was just going through it, weighing out options and seeing the pros and cons, what was good and what wasn’t, and I ended up choosing not to go.”
Although Wright-Foreman, Oni, and Brantley aren’t household names like other stars of the draft such as top picks Zion Williamson or Ja Morant, Zanik and the Jazz front office have scouted their talent closely. With changes being made to the team this offseason, there will certainly be opportunities for them to make their mark in Utah.
In what role, depends on their performances.
“With our roster, and again we’ll continue to be aggressive, it’s open and there’s a chance that we open a lot of roster spots,” Zanik said. “So, what we tell our guys is come in, come compete, we’ll have a developmental path for you that could be any number of ways.
“It could be on the roster, it could be part of the G League, two-way — any of those things could be on the table, but let’s get you in here, let’s get our coaching staff around you and let’s have a good summer and play and then we’ll work with them after that to kind of figure out the best developmental path.”