Miye Oni’s performance in Saturday night’s preseason game doesn’t jump off the stat sheet: nine points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, five rebounds, three assists in 18 minutes.
But given the position in which he was put, that qualifies as a major success. Yes, Oni stood out by not seeming out of place, even as he shared lineups with Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, Ed Davis and Jeff Green. There are obviously qualifiers — the biggest being that the Jazz were playing against Adelaide, an Australian National Basketball League team — but Oni played well.
“It was a good experience, getting to play with the older guys,” Oni said. "They trusted me out there, and made me feel comfortable. Good learning experience, for sure.
Oni, after scoring 17 points per game with Yale last season, was the first Bulldog drafted since Chris Dudley in 1987. After the Jazz selected him 58th, shooting was his standout skill early in summer league; later, he began to impress coaches with the impact his length had on the defensive end. And when Donovan Mitchell was asked about training camp standouts in the first week, his first thought was the 22-year-old from Yale.
“I didn’t know Miye was that athletic,” Mitchell said.
He showed it off a few times on Saturday night. Once, he caught an alley-oop lob from Georges Niang, despite maybe jumping a bit too late. He had an acrobatic, double-pump layup on a drive from the corner. And a from-behind swat surprised Adelaide’s Brendan Teys, leading to transition points for the Jazz.
The passing was nice, too. He led Royce O’Neale well for a breakaway layup, spotted Juwan Morgan open underneath as a defender closed out on him, and usually made the right play.
It was the culmination of an eventful week for Oni, as the young rookie tries to learn about Quin Snyder’s system in just a few practices.
“It was a whirlwind, honestly. It was a lot. It was a lot thrown at you really quickly. He trusts us to pick it up, and us young guys, we really did,” Oni said. “There’s going to be some mishaps, some miscommunications here and there, but that’s what preseason is for.”
It only gets more difficult from here, but in his first action, Oni looked like he belonged.
