With the FIBA World Cup over for Simone Fontecchio, it’s clear he deserves minutes for the Utah Jazz

Simone Fontecchio has shown his value during the FIBA World Cup, and hopefully, the Utah Jazz took note.

The Utah Jazz have a very deep team heading into the 2023-2024 season. They’re not a rich team of superstars, but the squad isn’t going to be too hard to find good, reliable talent who can score. That doesn’t mean they have a team of All-Stars or are going to win 60+ games this year, it simply means they won’t have to go looking for for solid talent. One of those players who is hoping to get more on-court action is Italy’s own, Simone Fontecchio.

Fontecchio spent the FIBA World Cup playing for Team Italy and having a wonderful run through the first two rounds.

Team USA then popped up and sent the Italian team to the classification round, where they were competing not for the World Cup, but for a better ranking. They finished 4-4 in the tournament, and are currently ranked 10th overall in the world.

And while that may not seem like a great run, Italy didn’t have its most iconic player Danillo Gallenari this time, and the team’s focus was to give Fontecchio the keys to the kingdom so to speak. During the run, Fontecchio averaged 18 points and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 42.9% from the floor.

Granted, he didn’t go off like Luka Doncic did, but he’s also not the same kind of player. He’s more of a catch-and-shoot kind of guy, and that is something the Jazz could use. They have a lot of ball-dominant guards and could use someone like Fontecchio to help clear up some of the congestion. It’s likely that one or more of the guards get dealt at some point this season, so there should be some room for Fontecchio to get minutes this season.

Especially with him on an expiring contract. The team has to know what they have in the 27-year-old. And after what we saw in the tournament, he’s more than earned some relevant minutes this season while coming off the bench.