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SALT LAKE CITY — We're talking about practice.
On Monday, the Utah Jazz assigned guards Alec Burks, Dante Exum and Raul Neto to their D-League affiliate Salt Lake City Stars, calling up Joel Bolomboy in the process.
None of the guards received much playing time on the most recent trip: Alec Burks played about 16 minutes total in the four games he's played since coming back from his surgery, Exum played 14 minutes in a reserve role against Toronto before getting two Did Not Play — Coach's Decisions in the final two games of the Jazz's road trip, and Raul Neto played 13 minutes against Boston before being a healthy scratch in the Jazz's last two games.
The D-League assignment for those three is in order to get them some practice time Monday, while the remaining Jazz players rest after a grueling road trip. Meanwhile, Bolomboy was called up because of a rule that says only three players can be on D-League assignment at one time. Bolomboy wouldn't have practiced anyway, due to a small injury he picked up on Saturday.
The Stars' practices are very similar to Jazz practice, Bolomboy told us after the Stars' D-League win Friday.
We'll see which players are called up before tomorrow's shootaround before the Jazz take on Cleveland. You can make a case that all three of them might benefit from the D-League. Neto's not much use to the roster if he's just being named inactive when everyone is healthy, Burks might be able to get in-game recovery time (like a baseball rehab assignment), and Exum's development might benefit from some D-League minutes. On the other hand, those players can be useful on the NBA roster, should foul trouble, sudden injury or a rash of Shelvin Mack turnovers hit.
4:48 P.M. update: The Jazz have called up all three of Burks, Exum, and Neto back to the Jazz, and assigned Bolomboy down to the Stars. Everything is as it was five hours ago, except that Burks, Exum, and Neto have gone through an additional practice.
5:31 P.M. update: The Jazz have announced that the team will not be shooting around before their game against Cleveland Tuesday.
