The Utah Jazz are big winners in Royce O’Neale extension

Today the Utah Jazz front office and Royce O’Neale agreed to a long term extension. This will be a major win for the Jazz both now and in the future.

In case you haven’t heard, the Utah Jazz have extended Royce O’Neale. Previous to today O’Neale was set to be a restricted free agent at the conclusion of this season after signing a two year contract in the fall of 2017.

It was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski at about 10 o’clock this morning. O’Neale was extended for 36 million dollars over the course of four years, starting in 2020-21.

Since O’Neale wasn’t drafted by the Jazz (or any NBA team for that matter), he had the option to sign an extension with no deadline this season. The most the Jazz could offer him was around nine million dollars a year, which seems like a low-ball offer for how well O’Neale has developed over his three year career.

It was rumored in November that the Jazz were looking to extend Royce, but when nothing materialized over the past couple months I assumed he would test the open market to get a more appropriate contract.

Danny Green, a premier defender that can knock down threes in virtually any offensive system, was signed at 15 million dollars a year after winning a championship in Toronto. I suspected Royce could command the same value given his age (26) and history of being a 3-and-D specialist on a playoff team.

It only made sense for Royce O’Neale to wait the season out and worry about the contract in the summer. After all, the Jazz are in the midst of an important race for a high playoff seed and O’Neale is one of the most valuable players in the rotation.

But instead O’Neale chose the road less traveled by most NBA players of his caliber, choosing to stay loyal the team that found and developed him into a good NBA player. Not only did Royce choose to return to the Jazz, but he did it without listening to the pitches of other NBA teams and turned down the extra money.

https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1218958201292349441

In other words, the Jazz got a steal of a deal once again. This move will prove to be crucial in the coming year as the Jazz need cap space to retain Rudy Gobert (eligible for supermax extension in 2021) and Donovan Mitchell (eligible for max extension in 2021).

Mike Conley is likely to opt in to the last year of his contract ($34.5 million) this summer, and both Jordan Clarkson and Emmanuel Mudiay will be free agents. This extension should make Donovan Mitchell happy since him and Royce are good friends.

Ultimately Utah was able to keep a valuable member of its supporting cast without overpaying, something they failed to do with Wes Matthews a decade ago. This will pay dividends both now and in the future for the Wasatch Front’s basketball club.