Walt Perrin Serious About Bringing Over Ante Tomic

Ante Tomic may be finally joining the Utah Jazz, says Walt Perrin

Utah Jazz Vice President of Player Personnel Walt Perrin has been a busy man. In 2005, the Jazz helped out then-Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Billy King by trading their second round draft pick for a future one, Utah selecting Ante Tomic 44th overall in 2008.

The 7’2″ Ante Tomic was considered too scrawny and lacking of the mental and physical toughness required of an NBA big man, so has been left in the EuroLeague to develop ever since.

"What we are seeing this season from Tomic is both very intriguing, but also highly concerning. It’s intriguing in the sense that Tomic emerges as the ultimate finesse big man, but also concerning because his physical development is taking him way too long, seriously jeopardizing his ability to succeed at a top basketball level. Although you can notice some slight bulk added to his body, he still looks very skinny, both in his legs and upper body, while his frame doesn’t promise great strides in the future.–DraftExpress, March 13, 2008"

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Some six years later, Ante Tomic garnered MVP honors two weeks in a row for his Spain league team FC Barcelona.

"Tomic scored a career-best 26 points, making 11 of his 16 two-point attempts. Tomic also had 15 rebounds, another career high, while providing three assists and drawing 7 fouls, which added up to a performance index rating of 40 – the best of his career.–RealGM, March 2, 2014"

Tomic has become a valuable player for Barca, dominating tournament play last month, nearly nabbing MVP honors despite his team coming up just shy in the championship game.

"Ante Tomic has developed into the most irreplaceable part of Xavi Pascual’s roster. The big Croat had another double-double in the final and was a legitimate contender for MVP on the night despite being on the losing side. It wasn’t just what he did while on the floor that made Tomic stand out but how dire Barcelona looked whenever he sat.–Basketball in Europe"

Interestingly, Ante Tomic’s backup for Barca is a player the Jazz just acquired the rights to in the recent Enes Kanter swap, Tibor Pleiss.

"Although his teammate Tibor Pleiss, the German prospect acquired in the Enes Kanter trade, has been attempting to join up with the Jazz this season, one can’t help but wonder if the time is now for the 28-year-old Tomic to make the jump.Still, given his age and the fact that the Jazz just shipped one of their promising bigs to the Oklahoma City Thunder, one can’t help but wonder if we are approaching “now or never” time with Tomic.–The J Notes, February 25, 2015"

David Locke reported this morning on 1280/97.5’s DJ&PK that Jazz coach Quin Snyder is “a huge Tomic fan, talks about him a good deal,” and reports are emerging from Spain that Walt Perrin is efforting a buyout in earnest to bring the big Croatian over the Utah for the 2015-16 NBA season.

“Tomic has had a good year in Spain and is one of the best teams in Europe. We are at the point where we try to make the decision about paying (a buyout),” Walt Perrin says, as reported by MARCA.com. Perrin also gave a short update on 2013 Jazz draft pick Raul Neto:

"“We’re not sure (about) Raul. We still have not talked about it and do not know if (he’ll) come this year or stay in the CBA for another season,” concluded Perrin.–MARCA.com"

Ante Tomic is under contract for another year in Spain for about the equivalent of $4 million dollars. The NBA and FIBA have an agreement in place that states they honor each other’s player contracts in buyout situations, but franchises can negotiate buyouts for players. There is also a “fee” for such a deal, the cost for 2015-16 being $625,000.

"The buyout amount is a matter of negotiation between the player and the international team or organization.–Larry Coon, NBA CBA FAQ"

It would seem the Utah Jazz are serious about bringing Ante Tomic over for a spin, at long last. Tomic would make a nice addition to Utah’s frontcourt, an offensive version of Rudy Gobert, if you will, after ripening on the EuroLeague vine for a few years.

My Co-Ed, the Rev Ryan also reported on Ante, including a nice highlight package of the “Atomic” Tomic.

Update:

Spanish paper @sport says Barcelona will look into upping Tomic salary to see if they can keep him. Current cont. seems to b 1.8M€ after tax
— Nuno Sá (@nsanba) March 6, 2015

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