As the NBA’s calendar turned to the 2024-25 season, the Jazz waived one player, lost another to free agency, but gained a new center.
The addition: former Phoenix center Drew Eubanks on a two-year, $10 million contract, in a move first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Eubanks, a 6-9 center, spent last season with the Suns after two years with Portland and three with the San Antonio Spurs.
In a related deal, the Jazz waived Omer Yurtseven, the 26-year-old third-string center who the Jazz signed last offseason after two years with the Miami Heat. Yurtseven played 48 games for the Jazz, starting 12, and was slated to make $2.6 million next season had he not been waived.
Then, late Monday, the Los Angeles Clippers signed away point guard Kris Dunn from the team. Dunn, 30, saw his career revitalized in his one and a half seasons as a Jazz player after the team initially signed him on a 10-day contract in Feb. 2023.
Eubanks, 27, averaged five points and four rebounds per game for Phoenix last year, playing 15 minutes per night as Phoenix’s backup center. He earned that role over former Jazzman Udoka Azubuike, who signed a one-year minimum deal with the Suns last season. Eubanks, meanwhile, had a player option for the 2024-25 season with the Suns, which he opted out of to pursue free agency.
The center worked his way up through the NBA ranks after going undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft after three seasons at Oregon State.
But the Jazz will miss Dunn and Yurtseven, who played significant roles throughout the season for the Jazz. Yurtseven proved a critical option when Walker Kessler and John Collins missed time.
Dunn, meanwhile, started a whopping 32 games for the Jazz last season, playing both on and off the ball. He was the Jazz’s best guard defender, while the rest of the backcourt struggled at that side of the ball. Rookie Keyonte George, whose locker was adjacent to Dunn’s, raved about Dunn’s veteran leadership throughout the season.
Other moves and rumors around the league made more significant national noise on July 1.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen (23) reaches fora rebound along with San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (10), in NBA action between the Utah Jazz and the San Antonio Spurs, at the Delta Center, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
• Rumors percolated about the Jazz’s willingness to trade their best player, Finnish star Lauri Markkanen. Wojnarowski said that Markkanen had become a key target for teams who had wanted to trade for Brooklyn’s Miles Bridges, but lost out. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also reported that teams trying to trade for Markkanen believed there was a “good chance” the Jazz would move him this summer.
• The headline contract saw Clippers star Paul George leave L.A. in free agency in favor of a four-year, $216 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers; the Clippers responded by signing Nicolas Batum and Derrick Jones Jr. to minor deals.
• The Warriors lost two former All-NBA guards Monday. First, Chris Paul was waived by the team to save salary, after which he signed a one-year, $11 million contract to play with the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama next season. Four-time champion Klay Thompson is also leaving the Golden State Warriors after 13 years with the team, signing with the Mavericks on a three-year, $50 million deal.
• Potential Utah Jazz target Tobias Harris signed a two-year, $52 million deal with the Detroit Pistons, while former New York Knick Isaiah Hartenstein added to Oklahoma City’s stockpile of talented players by signing a three-year, $87 million with the regular season Western Conference winners.
• The defending champion Boston Celtics added nearly half a billion dollars to their future payroll, signing star Jayson Tatum to a five-year, $314 million extension and guard Derrick White to a four-year, $126 million extension. Former Ute Delon Wright extended his NBA career by signing a one-year, $3.3 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks.
