Utah Jazz: 3 reasons Dante Exum contract is a good one

The Utah Jazz have reached an agreement with restricted free agency Dante Exum on a three-year, $33 million deal.

Dante Exum was originally taken by the Utah Jazz with fifth overall in the 2014 NBA Draft. Since then, Exum has had an interesting time trying to make it in the NBA. In his first year, he looked like a cautious rookie who was out of his depth. Towards the end of the season, he started to believe he belonged in the league.

Then, in the 2015 offseason, disaster struck. Exum was playing for the Australian National team when he injured his knee on a simple drive to the hoop, tearing his ACL. This would keep the budding Australian star out of the NBA for the entire of the 2015-16 season.

Exum came back and played the 2016-17 season looking more like the player he was when originally drafted. He was a little more sure of himself and looked like he was going to take a leap forward. Then disaster struck again. Exum injured his shoulder prior to the 2017-18 season.

He was expected to miss the entire season but came back to play 14 games. What he showed in this little sample size is why the Jazz made the right call re-signing Dante Exum. As ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski reported, the deal will be for three years and $33 million.

On the surface, this seems like quite a hefty investment in an injury-prone backup guard, but here are three reasons why the deal is defensible for the Utah Jazz.