Utah Jazz: Wigginton brings familiar Iowa St flair to pre-draft workout

Iowa State Cyclones point guard Lindell Wigginton looks to become the latest Cyclones alum to make an impression on the Utah Jazz.

More than that of most schools, Iowa State Cyclones alumni have made their mark on the Utah Jazz. In the ’90s, Jeff Hornacek helped lead the team to two NBA Finals. More recently, Jamaal Tinsley started games at the point for Utah during the twilight of his career. Now, Georges Niang is making an impact while his former teammate — Naz Mitrou-Long — runs amok for the G-League’s Salt Lake City Stars.

On Saturday, another Iowa State product will look to make an impression during the Jazz’s first pre-draft workout in advance of the 2019 NBA Draft.

Lindell Wigginton, a Big 12 All-Newcomer Team pick in 2018 and this past season’s Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year, will be part of a group of six prospects who will strut their stuff for the Jazz’s decision-makers at the Zions Bank Basketball Campus.

Joining him will be historically high-scoring Campbell guard Chris Clemons, Florida’s Jalen Hudson, big man Nathan Knight from Willam & Marry, TCU’s Kevin Samuel, and a player Utah Utes fans and Pac-!2 aficionados will be familiar with in Oregon States’ Tres Tinkle.

As is often the case with the team’s early groups, this workout mostly features fringe draft prospects and underclassmen testing the draft waters. In Wigginton’s case, though, he’s hired an agent and plans to see the process through to the end after declaring last summer, but ultimately returning to Ames.

He and other underclassmen will have until May 29th to withdraw from the draft pool.

As an NBA prospect, Wigginton clearly has some hurdles to overcome; 6-foot-2, 189-pound guys aren’t exactly the apple of GM’s eyes in the Association. However, he did hit nearly 40 percent of his 290 triples over two years with the Cyclones.

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Now, he needs to prove he can hit that shot at the NBA level and hang with the trees and the world-class athletes he would face night in and night out at the next level. If Wigginton can do it, he’ll be the first native Nova Scotian to play in the Association, which isn’t at all lost on the 21-year-old.

“That’s been my dream while growing up,” he told the Des Moines Register last month. “Not a lot of people make it from where I’m from, so me just being the first person to try and make it means a lot to me and it means a lot to the youth back home.”

His long-shot path begins this weekend in Salt Lake City.