Because the Utah Jazz are in the middle of a youth movement, they have the time to figure out how and where they will find the cornerstones of their next playoff contender. They've already found a few already, and they may have found another one in Johnny Juzang.
Towards the end of his second two-way contract in Utah, Juzang showed some promise when the Jazz started playing him towards the end of last season. Juzang averaged 11.8 points in April while shooting 52.8% from the field and 59.3% from three on a decent concentration of 4.5 attempts a game.
Could those fall under the "Good stats, bad team" category because the Jazz season was over anyway? Sure, but they were good enough that there was the sentiment that Juzang had proven himself ready for a bigger NBA role.
Two games into the preseason, and Juzang has only strengthened his case for an NBA role.
Juzang has been nothing but awesome in preseason
While no one's calling Juzang a star - especially since it's preseason, where the only subplot that matters is who makes the team - he has given every indication that he should be in the Jazz's rotation.
In two games thus far, Juzang is averaging 15.5 points, shooting 79% from the field and 78% from three. He's played so well that he was definitely among the standouts in the Jazz's impressive comeback win against the Rockets the other night.
Juzang looks like he's going to be a player. Now, considering him a future star is a stretch in a lone line of stretches, but the bottom line is that knowing the contract the Jazz gave him, he looks like a massive steal. He just signed a four-year contract worth $11 million. If that's not exciting enough, his contract is guaranteed only for this season.
Utah will basically control his future, and if what he's showing thus far proves not to be a mirage, they could get great production for the little he's paying him. His story could also serve as evidence of why two-way contracts are valuable for teams. They can pave the way for teams to find diamonds in the rough.
In a season that probably won't be very exciting, Juzang's development has emerged as one of the most exciting subplots going into the season, to the point that he has created his own hype train. Just hopefully, it doesn't get to the point where said hype gets out of control. If it hasn't already.