Utah Jazz: Dante Exum, Raul Neto get qualifying offers

Utah Jazz guards Dante Exum and Raul Neto have received qualifying offers and are now set to hit the market as restricted free agents.

Following their selection of Grayson Allen in the 2018 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz have shifted their attention to free agency. As expected, Utah’s first moves will be in-house — according to NBA scribe Keith Smith, the Jazz have tendered qualifying offers to guards Dante Exum and Raul Neto.

Georges Niang also received a qualifying offer.

With their qualifying offers in-hand, the trio will become restricted free agents once the market opens on July 1. As such, the Jazz will retain the right to match any offer sheet they sign.

Should it come to that, the Jazz are in a bit of a quandary with Exum. The team believes he’s capable of big things and, as a former No. 5 overall pick, a lot of time and resources have been invested into his development. However, injuries have stymied his progress as a player.

After playing in all 82 games as a rookie, Exum has taken the court in less than a third of his team’s games over the last three years. He averaged 8.1 points and 3.1 assists per contest in just 14 regular season appearances last season.

So, Exum and the Jazz now find themselves with an incomplete knowledge of one another despite being four years in.

There’s a chance Exum could simply put pen to paper on his QO (worth approximately $4.4 million for next season) and play the year out in hopes of finding his footing as a player and building his case for a long-term, high-dollar deal next summer.

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Otherwise, some complicated negotiations are on the horizon.

As for Neto, the Brazilian national has been a solid third-string point guard for the Jazz. He averaged 4.5 points and 1.8 assists per game while connecting on 40 percent of his 3-pointers during an injury-plagued 2017-18 campaign.

The team could likely retain him on the cheap, unless they decide to play the market for an upgrade. I, for one, am in favor of retaining his services. He’s largely been a positive impact player, he knows the system and he’s good friends with Rudy Gobert.

Niang, meanwhile, was a two-way player for the Jazz in ’17-18. He was a 20-point scorer every night over 41 games in the G-League and made nine appearances as part of the main roster. The feeling is that the organization likes him as a player.