With the Utah Jazz signing Naz Mitrou-Long to a 10-day contract over the weekend, let’s reintroduce you to the guard and how he could potentially help in Salt Lake City this season.
Over the weekend, the Utah Jazz signed somewhat of a familiar face to rejoin the team. On Sunday, the team announced that it had officially signed guard Naz Mitrou-Long to a 10-day contract.
For Jazz fans, that’s a name that they should recognize.
Although Mitrou-Long is less than 24 hours into is first 10-day contract with Utah, he has some history with the franchise, mainly spending time with the Jazz during training camp and on Utah’s G League team, the Salt Lake City Stars.
Let’s reintroduce you to Mitrou-Long and how he could potentially help the Jazz for the rest of the 2017-18 season.
Mitrou-Long is a 6’4″, 218-pound guard who comes out of Iowa State attempting to make a name for himself in the NBA.
Mitrou-Long, who played three years at Iowa State and averaged 15.1 points and 4.6 rebounds during his senior season, went undrafted out of college in 2017 but ended up signing with the Jazz as part of a training camp invite in September.
Throughout training came with Utah, the guard played in two preseason games, averaging four points and one assist in about seven minutes per game.
Utah Jazz
After training camp, Mitrou-Long signed a two-way deal with the Jazz, playing mostly with the Stars in the G League. In the G League, he has averaged 16.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 34.6 minutes per game. He did appear in one NBA game in December, finishing with three points against the Denver Nuggets.
Mitrou-Long ended up without a job in the middle of January, when he was waived by the Jazz to open up a roster spot.
Following a busy NBA trade deadline period, which saw Utah send away Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson in return for Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose — who has since been released — along with a recent injury to starting point guard Ricky Rubio, there was once again a roster spot open for the Jazz to fill.
This led to Mitrou-Long once again finding his way to the NBA. For now.
Mitrou-Long likely won’t get a lot of playing time with Utah, especially behind the likes of Donovan Mitchell and Alec Burks, but he could provide the Jazz with a nice lift of the bench if needed.
One thing that jumps out about Mitrou-Long is his ability to shoot the ball from behind the arc. During his three-year stint at Iowa State, Mitrou-Long maintained a career total of 37.7 percent shooting from 3-point range. That mark has carried over to his professional career, as he has shot 35.7 percent from 3 in 32 games in the G League.
Another thing that has stepped up a notch is his rebounding ability, which is a valuable trait to carry at the guard position in today’s NBA. Mitrou-Long, who averaged 3.7 rebounds in his career in college, has averaged 6.1 rebounds per game so far this year in the G League.
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Yes, it’s just a 10-day contract, but Mitrou-Long has potential and clearly Utah has interest in keeping him around. With most players on 10-day contracts often seeing that first contract turn into a second one, Jazz fans might want to get used to seeing Mitrou-Long around — once again — for a little while.