Elijah Millsap signs 3-year contract with the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz front office has appeared to be making some nice loyal moves to the beloved Millsap family. According to Millsap's agent, Daniel Hazan (as reported by RealGM), "Elijah Millsap has reached an agreement to sign a three-year contract with the Utah Jazz."

No exact salary numbers of the contract have been anounced yet but I would expect it to be around the league minimum up to about $1-1.5 MM per year.

His contract is guaranteed for the rest of the 2015 NBA season and is reported to be team options for the following two seasons. Excellent flexible move here made by the Jazz!

This move appears to be a nice low-risk, with a possible moderate reward as "Brother Elijah" may very well be the diamond in the rough pick of the D-League crop this year that DL has made. He has played in the D-League now for a while with this being his 5th season.

In 19 games for the Bakersfield Jam this season, he was averaging 20.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 2.1 steals in 36.6 minutes (according to RealGM's database); All Career Highs!

Before coming to the Jazz, Elijah went undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft. He then signed a multi-year deal with the Thunder before being waived before the regular season even started.

He then went through signed a short contract with the Lakers before continuing his journey towards working his way to the top of all the D-League, which honestly was probably the best move for his career, since he wouldn't really improve just watching from he end of an NBA bench.

Alas, his work has finally paid off to where the NBA just couldn't go on in ignoring him, as first the Bucks signed Millsap to a short contract before the season while once again being let go before the season started.

He then finally ended up in the home of where Millsaps thrive in Utah on January 5th of this year.

He has since played in 10 games for the Jazz, averaging over 20 minutes per game with an average statline of 5.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks off of 32.8 FG%, 41.7 3P%, and 81.8 FT%.

Coach Q appears to like what Elijah is bringing to the team in hustle and outside shooting. He is averaging more minutes than #5 pick of the 2014 draft Dante Exum, and just about the same minutes as future defensive cornerstone Rudy Gobert. Not too shabby for someone who was scraping for glory in the D-League just a month ago. He has also played more total minutes this year than Ian Clark, who supposedly is known for his shooting but for whatever reason cannot find a way to crack Coach Snyder's rotation.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of this move. It may be by my bias for Millsaps due to how wonderful Paul was for us all those years. But I also think that Elijah brings a good skillset to the table for this Jazz team, that we especially need with the unforeseen injury issues that have plagued the shooting guard position with Burks being out for the year, Hood being injured on and off, and Patrick Christopher's career for the Jazz playing out very similarly to a Greek tragedy.

So, welcome to the team for at least the rest of the season Elijah! I, as I am sure many others are, am very excited to see if we strike gold twice in the Millsap genetic stream of dominance. Keep up the awesome work!

Really appreciate the love from everyone!! It's been a journey but well worth the wait if I can Inspire someone. #Godsplan #Persevere

— Elijah Millsap (@Elijah_Millsap) January 25, 2015

Go Jazz!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Thank you to <a href="https://twitter.com/utahjazz">@utahjazz</a> Coaches/teammates/Fans for accepting me into the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Family?src=hash">#Family</a></p>&mdash; Elijah Millsap (@Elijah_Millsap) <a href="https://twitter.com/Elijah_Millsap/status/559438410658873345">January 25, 2015</a></blockquote>

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