Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Seems like the Jazz aren't done adding to their roster after all.
Baylor forward Royce O'Neale signed a 3-year contract with the Utah Jazz, according to overseas basketball news website Sportando. The first year of the contract is guaranteed, while the latter two are not. Both pieces of news were confirmed by the Deseret News.
Meanwhile, the Jazz also inked forward Eric Griffin to a two-way contract, the first in team history. The deal will see Griffin spend most of the year with the SLC Stars while spending up to 45 days with the Utah Jazz. Chris Reichert of 2 Ways & 10 Days was the first to report the deal.
O'Neale is a 3-and-D prospect who played in the Spanish ACB league, for Herbalife Gran Canaria. There, he averaged 8.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in 20.5 minutes of play. The 24-year-old shot 35 percent from 3-point land. O'Neale had to opt out of his recently signed deal with Zalgiris in Lithuania to sign with the Jazz, but they liked his play in the ACB and with the New Orleans Pelicans summer-league team enough to give him guaranteed money.
Griffin was a more expected signing, after an impressive summer league with the Jazz. Griffin averaged 9.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in 22.1 minutes, shooting 53 percent from the field. The high-flyer also impressed with his energy on the defensive end. Several NBA teams were interested in securing Griffin's signature, and he's a good get for the Jazz in one of their two-way slots.
The signature of O'Neale, though, does raise the number of players the Jazz have on the roster under standard contracts to 16. The Jazz have only two nonguaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts on the roster: that of Raul Neto (fully nonguaranteed) and Joel Bolomboy (partially guaranteed). The Jazz will have to waive one, or somehow otherwise decrease their roster count, in order to go into the regular season.
