When the NBA made the new two way player designation for NBA teams, it seemed like a tailor made adjustment for the Utah Jazz. Dennis Lindsey loves nothing more than to find diamonds in the rough. He’s done so in the past with Joe Ingles and this season with Royce O’Neale. Enter Georges Niang. Niang was signed to a two way contract in January and was a common staple of garbage time.

Prior to him signing with the Utah Jazz, he spent time in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers. Niang actually was a second round pick of the Indiana Pacers in 2016. In between those stints, he languished in the G-League playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants—SHOUT OUT TO FORT WAYNE!—the Santa Cruz Warriors, and finally after signing with Utah, the Salt Lake City Stars.

If you take a look at his G-League stats he seems like the type of wing NBA teams could covet in the new small ball era. He averaged 22.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while shooting 52.7% from three with an effective field goal percentage of 70% (not a typo) while playing with the Salt Lake City Stars.

With the Utah Jazz, however, there wasn’t a place for a developing wing on a team trying to develop its own rookie stars in Royce O’Neale and Rookie of the Year Finalist Donovan Mitchell. That left Niang’s showtime to the G-League and garbage time. While his grade for the season is mostly incomplete, Niang is hoping that he’ll be the next rags to riches discovery for Utah in a long string of misfit toys who have found their place in Quin Snyder’s advantage offense.

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Georges Niang

Average GPA: Incomplete

Grade: Incomplete

Per Game Stats

Per 36 Stats

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Grade Notes from the SLC Dunk Staff

Mychal Lowman: Georges Niang while a staple of Utah Jazz social media was more a staple of the Salt Lake City Stars. With the Stars, he was a star. Putting up big numbers. It remains to be seen how that can translate to the NBA. We’ll be watching carefully in Utah Jazz Summer League to see if he can follow in the footsteps of Royce O’Neale.

James Hansen: Georges Niang earns some points for showing up in a lot of Jazz social media, but he can’t get a grade until he gets more playtime.

Taylor Griffin: Had very cool bench celebrations. Brought some fire.

Andy Bailey: Another G-League standout (19.7 points and a 45.9 three-point percentage) who didn’t get enough minutes in the NBA for anything but an incomplete.

Kaleb Searle: He seems like he has some potential from his performance with the Stars, but again, not enough NBA sample size for a grade.

Tavan Parker: If you like advanced stats, then Niang is your guy!

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Jason Walker: Just 32 minutes of play all year. Most of his value probably comes in scrimmages and drills in those three-hour practices.

Jordan Cummings: Another I - incomplete. Hard to grade the 14th and 15th guys on the bench.

Diana: An incomplete. I don’t really know much about Niang.

Sam Goodrich: Georges shot a blistering 45.7% from three this season in the G-League. He score 19.7 points per game, and added 4.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds to go with it. Methinks he might be on his way to graduating from the G-League soon.