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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz waived former Weber State forward-center Joel Bolomboy in order to get the roster down to the NBA's 15-man standard contract limit, the team announced Monday.
Bolomboy was the casualty of a roster space crunch in two different ways. First, Bolomboy was the 15th man with a guaranteed contract on the roster, but that doesn't include point guard Raul Neto, who figures to spend significant time as the Jazz's backup point guard this season now that Dante Exum has gone down with a separated shoulder.
Second, Bolomboy found himself among a big man glut on the Jazz's roster. All of Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors, Ekpe Udoh and Tony Bradley can play center, and Favors, Udoh, Jonas Jerebko, Joe Johnson and even Thabo Sefolosha can play at the power forward position.
Bolomboy played in 12 games for the Jazz last season, for an average of 4.4 minutes per game. He averaged 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per contest.
The roster and contract factors combined for the Jazz to waive Bolomboy's $1.3 million guaranteed salary for this season. The Jazz will still have to pay Bolomboy that salary unless another NBA team claims Bolomboy on waivers in the next 48 hours.
If he does slip through waivers, Bolomboy is ineligible to join the SLC Stars, the minor league affiliate of the Jazz. That's due to a new NBA rule which prevents players who made over $50,000 in guaranteed money from signing a G-League contract with the team that waived them.
That's unfortunate for the Stars, who counted on Bolomboy's talents whenever he was in the G-League. Bolomboy averaged 16.6 points and 13.3 rebounds per game in the minor league and was the Stars' best player for the majority of the time he was on the floor. Bolomboy also showed off his 3-point range in the minor league, shooting 46.8 percent from downtown in 47 attempts.
The waiver makes room for Royce O'Neale, an unheralded 24-year-old who played collegiate ball at Baylor University. O'Neale last played for Gran Canaria in Spain and is a strong perimeter defensive prospect. He averaged 3.2 points and 3.2 rebounds in 10 minutes per game in the Jazz's five-game preseason.
"It feels great," O'Neale said about making the roster. "All of the hard work and extra effort I put in is finally paying off. Now I just have to work harder each day."
