SALT LAKE CITY — After a busy opening day of free agency, the Utah Jazz aren’t completely done just yet.
On Monday, Utah announced that they waived floor general Raul Neto to create cap space to complete the Mike Conley Jr. trade with Memphis.
Neto appeared in just 37 games of the Jazz’s 50-win season last year to average 5.3 points and 2.5 assists on 46% shooting.
Even before Utah’s 2018-19 training camp started in September, he suffered a right hamstring injury, then missed more games with right thigh soreness, a left groin strain, left hamstring tightness and left ankle soreness.
Neto has been in Los Angeles this offseason training with French osteopath and physical therapist Fabrice Gautier to get his body prepared for the upcoming season.
Utah needed to make a move by July 6 to incorporate Conley’s $32,511,623 salary into its cap space. The salary cap has been set at $109,140,000 for the 2019-20 season, while the tax level for the 2019-20 season is $132,627,000. In order to make the current deal work, Utah needed the cap to jump to roughly $109.28 million, per Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights.
Neto, 27, spent four seasons in Utah, primarily as a spark off the bench, posting nightly averages of 4.8 points, 1.9 assists and 1.3 boards, while starting in 54 of his 199 career games.