The Utah Jazz have waived a player they received from the Minnesota Timberwolves last summer in exchange for Rudy Gobert.
On Thursday afternoon, The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Tony Jones first reported that the Jazz are waiving seldom-used guard Leandro Bolmaro, who came to Utah from Minnesota alongside Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Walker Kessler and Jarred Vanderbilt.
The team announced the move a few hours later.
Bolmaro, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound 22-year-old from Argentina, was the 23rd pick of the 2020 NBA draft by the New York Knicks (incidentally, the pick originally belonged to the Jazz), but he was quickly traded to the Timberwolves.
He appeared in just 35 games for Minnesota as a rookie, spending much more time with the NBA G League’s Iowa Wolves, before being included in the Gobert trade.
It was a similar story this season with the Jazz, as Bolmaro appeared in just 14 contests. He averaged 1.1 points and 1 rebound in 4.9 minutes per appearance.
The move is interesting given that Utah didn’t need to make it because of any sort of roster crunch like it had before the season when it waived the likes of Jared Butler and Stanley Johnson.
The Jazz will now have two roster spots open, and it would become three if the newly-acquired Russell Westbrook ends up getting bought out and going to another team (that has to happen by March 1 if he wants to be eligible to play in the playoffs for another team).
Oftentimes, rebuilding teams like the Jazz will leave roster spots open if they identify potential developmental players they want to bring into the organization.