The Utah Jazz were routinely criticized for the moves they made during the offseason. Everyone knew could see the plan was to cut ties with John Collins, Jordan Clarkson, and Collin Sexton, which they ultimately did, and even so, how they executed the moves were not received well. There was one move that didn't get much attention, but certainly raised eyebrows and in hindsight, it was the right move: cutting Johnny Juzang.
Juzang was pretty solid in his last year as a Jazzman. As if his name being alliterative, along with his initials sharing the same first letter as the Jazz, wasn't cool enough, it was fun to watch a player like him be a reasonably productive player in Utah. In 64 games (18 of which he started), Juzang averaged 8.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 0.6 steals while shooting almos 43% from the field and 37.6% from three.
That's why it came as a little bit of a shock that Utah elected to keep Svi Mykhailiuk over him. In fact, some believed the Jazz inadvertently did the Timberwolves another favor by giving him the opportunity to go there. Alas. Juzang has not even come close to the same replication as a Timberwolf that he once did with the Jazz.
The Jazz alum has appeared in only 17 games for Minnesota, averaging 2.1 points and 0.8 rebounds while shooting 43.8% from the field and 25% from three, as his minutes went from nearly 20 in Utah to almost 4 per game in Minnesota. It's safe to say he might not be long for Minnesota nor the NBA in general.
His Utah numbers may have been good stats, bad team
It's not like Juzang lit the world on fire when he donned a Jazz uniform, but he had played well enough that the prevailing theory was that the team should have kept him. How he's fared since joining the Timberwolves kind of proves that his production was merely empty calories and that the Jazz knew what they were doing when they cut him.
That's not to say that they should gloat about this. Juzang was a cool story on the Jazz, but they had too many youthful players for him to keep his spot on the team long-term. It would have been cool for him to become a diamond in the rough for the TImberwolves, but he just isn't.
This might be it for Juzang's NBA career, but with any luck, he'll get more opportunities to prove himself. Maybe with any luck, one of those said opportunities could be a potential homecoming in Utah.