Elijah Hughes: Bucks | Syracusefan.com

Elijah Hughes: Bucks

Why'd the other thread get locked?

This is cool. I guess i need to watch more of the 'other teams' in college BBall, but it's hard to grok how some of those other guys were drafted ahead of our guy—who led the best conference in scoring, and is also athletic as all getout.
 
That’s awesome. And for those that wonder why you leave early and what it means to the player, look at the reaction of Elijah and his family to have that dream come true. Awesome and he’s a perfect fit in Utah. Congrats. Plus I believe he gets a top 40 guarantee contract
 
I’ve never been happier for one of our guys getting drafted. Just an awesome dude who led a really likeable team. His reaction just made my month.

I think Utah could be a really solid fit if he can play his way into their rotation. I’m excited to watch.

Thanks for the memories and congrats
 
Why'd the other thread get locked?

This is cool. I guess i need to watch more of the 'other teams' in college BBall, but it's hard to grok how some of those other guys were drafted ahead of our guy—who led the best conference in scoring, and is also athletic as all getout.

He's no longer "entering the draft"

He's now a draftee. :D
 
That’s awesome. And for those that wonder why you leave early and what it means to the player, look at the reaction of Elijah and his family to have that dream come true. Awesome and he’s a perfect fit in Utah. Congrats. Plus I believe he gets a top 40 guarantee contract

I don't think there are any contract guarantee's for a second rounder, but maybe there was a rule change in the CBA that I overlooked.
 
Awesome for Eli and family! As mentioned earlier, the emotion of this draft class is powerful stuff. Entertaining night of television with some of that feel good emotions! Gotta love seeing peoples dreams come true.
 
Elijah will have a long career in my opinion. He's a perfect instant shooter off the bench early in his career. Quick look at Utah's roster shows Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson as his competition for playing time behind Donovan Mitchell. Side note...How is Donovan Mitchell only 6'1"?!?! Incredible! Eli brings some needed height to their backcourt too.
 
Ok, so, I know a little bit about the Jazz organization, have some friends that work within and in support of the organization, and this is what I can tell you:

The Jazz are committed to making sure that their players can completely focus their time and energy on basketball. Elijah is in control of his destiny, and that's not true for every player drafted. He's with an organization that will give him every opportunity to maximize his basketball talent. It's on his shoulders. That's a good situation.

The Jazz, and the NBA, have reaped the rewards of their commitment to development. There's a long list of guys that vastly outperformed their draft choice (and many UFAs) including Gobert, Mitchell, Ingles and Royce O'Neale on the current roster, to other guys like Rodney Hood, DeMarre Carroll, Wes Matthews, Paul Millsap, and a bunch more to lesser degrees of success and there's a good chance I'm forgetting some.

From a roster perspective, Elijah has a legitimate chance to earn minutes. The Jazz bench was weak last season, and unless they make a lot of creative moves in the upcoming shortened off-season, I'm not sure how much better it will really get. The opportunity is there, and it might be a big one. Currently, the backcourt is Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell. They're both very good players, and very small guards. The future is to put the ball in Mitchell's hands alongside a bigger guard with some ability to spot up, some ability to create, and that can match up with the opponent's bigger guard. Well... maybe if things fall right that could be our boy Elijah. That's the all stars aligned scenario, but even short of that, it sounds like the Jazz want to bring back Jordan Clarkson as their scoring super sub guard, but there are other minutes for a second line guard to emerge. Ingles is aging, and Bojan played great last season, but there could be time available at the back up 3 too, because the Jazz like to play Royce O'Neale at the 4.

The front office talks a lot about identifying players with Jazz DNA. This article does a good job describing it - https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...qjmXaw5vQ10gUundM&ampcf=1&cshid=1605764548898. They don't make draft moves to acquire guys unless they feel the player has Jazz DNA. That's a nice compliment to Elijah.
 

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