Utah Jazz: Raul Neto out of action at least two more weeks

Opening night in the NBA may be looming, but point guard Raul Neto remains on the shelf for the Utah Jazz.

When the Utah Jazz take the court at the Golden 1 Center on October 17 for their season opener against the Sacramento Kings, they figure to be as healthy as they’ve been in the last year. That said, at least one player looks locked into a spot behind the bench, where he’ll trade in his Jazz blues for street clothes.

Point guard Raul Neto, who has been battling a right hamstring injury throughout training camp, doesn’t appear to be on-track for opening night. Per Jazz PR, Neto was re-evaluated on Tuesday and is showing progress toward making a return, but will be evaluated again in two more weeks.

Neto has been a no-show throughout the Jazz’s preseason.

Clearly, this wasn’t how Neto wanted to being his 2018-19 campaign, especially given the way his ’17-18 season played out. As much as any player on the roster, he was the poster boy for Utah’s ceaselessly biting injury bug.

The 26-year-old appeared in just 41 games for the Jazz last year, missing several large chunks of the season with a multitude of injuries. The litany included a concussion, a left knee bone bruise, a fractured left wrist, a banged-up left quad, left hamstring soreness, bruised ribs, foot soreness and a sprained ankle.

All of that happened over a seven-month period.

It’s a real shame, too; despite perpetually missing time and playing through pain when he wasn’t inactive, Neto put together a pretty solid season for the Jazz. Per 36 minutes, he averaged 13.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.5 boards. Meanwhile, he was one of the team’s most consistent deep threats, hitting over 40 percent of his threes.

He may be a third-stringer in the Jazz backcourt, but that production will be missed if Neto is out over an extended period.

With Dante Exum handling back-up duties behind Ricky Rubio, look for Alec Burks and rookie Grayson Allen to assume emergency ball-handling duties at the end of the bench until Neto returns. Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell will also take their turns initiating the offense.