Utah Jazz: Dante Exum could be a great contingency plan

The Utah Jazz re-signed Dante Exum to be their backup point guard, but he become much more valuable than that sooner than anyone thinks.

Despite the lofty selection the Utah Jazz made over four years ago when they took their Australian point guard with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Dante Exum hasn’t had the career that’s inherently expected of a high lottery pick. That’s okay. Exum isn’t a normal player.

For starters, Exum is 6’6″, definitely on the larger side of most guards. Some sites list him as a point guard. Others list him as a shooting guard despite his career 30.6 percent average from beyond the arc. Others still take the easy route and just list him as a guard. For Utah, he’s slotted in as the backup point guard next season behind Spanish sensation Ricky Rubio. It may not be long before he’s starting full-time.

That last sentence is meant as no disrespect to Rubio. He fits Utah’s offense perfectly, and took his own offense to a new level in his first season in Salt Lake City. He’s spoken about wanting to be in Utah for the foreseeable future, and other Jazz members like him a lot. The fact of the matter is that the NBA is a business; Dante Exum just re-upped for 3 more years, and Ricky Rubio is on an expiring contract. Those things don’t necessarily equal Rubio leaving, but what if he does?

In my most recent piece, I wrote on three takeaways from the Jazz’s offseason so far. While researching for the piece, I found an interesting statistical tidbit on Exum:

"“He only played in 14 games this past season, but his per 36 numbers from last season say that he would have averaged 17.5 points, 6.6 assists and 1.2 steals. Those numbers would have ranked second, first and fourth on the team on a per game basis.”"

In simpler terms, that means if he had been healthy and received starter’s minutes, he would have been playing some really good basketball. It’s the first part of that last sentence that has plagued Exum’s young career.

“Injury-prone” is the worst label a young player can have. It’s what derailed the promising careers of players like Tracy McGrady, Brandon Roy, Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway. With the exception of Hill, the other players were all guards, the same position Exum plays. While it’s hard to compare McGrady or Roy’s game to Exum’s, a pro comparison for Exum was none other than Penny Hardaway once upon a time.

Like Hardaway, Exum is a disruptive defender. Their 3-point percentage for their careers are near mirror images (31.6 percent for Hardaway, 30.6 for Exum), along with their free throw percentages (77.4 percent for Hardaway, 75.7 for Exum). Put simply, they’re below-average 3-point shooters, but both possess decent shooting strokes.

Imagine what Exum in the starting lineup could mean. If he was, it would mean Rubio left, but that’s not a bad thing.

Rubio will never match Exum’s stature or length. If inserted into the starting lineup, Exum could serve as the primary facilitator and defensive disruptor, allowing the other presumed starters (Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Derrick Favors, and Rudy Gobert) to do what they do best — score, shoot, be a force underneath and man the paint, respectively.

Exum could unlock a whole new dimension of Utah’s offense, but only time will tell.