REPORT: Georges Niang signs with the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz filled the roster spot left behind by the release of Jonas Jerebko. As many predicted, Georges Niang has been signed by the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz press release can be found on their website here.

The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has signed forward Georges Niang (George KNEE-yang). Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

Niang (6-8, 230, Iowa State) signed a two-way contract with Utah last season on Jan. 14, appearing in nine games for the squad. Niang also saw action in 41 games for the Santa Cruz Warriors and Utah’s G League affiliate the Salt Lake City Stars last year, posting averages of 19.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 33.9 minutes per contest.

In 15 games with the Stars, he averaged a team-high 22.0 points per game. He ranked ninth in scoring average for the G League, 10th in field-goal percentage (.570) and second in three-point field-goal percentage (.459). He was named to the All-NBA G League First Team following the 2017-18 season, also being named to the Midseason All-NBA G League West Team by NBA G League coaches, general managers and players who voted on the top performers from the first half of the season from their respective conferences.

Niang showed some good improvement during his time with the stars, but his summer league performances this year is what forced the Jazz to get him on the roster full time. He possesses the type of talent that fits well with Quin Snyder’s style. While with the Stars, he shot over 52% (!) from 3 on nearly 5 attempts per game and has shown good passing instincts as well. To top it off, his defensive play and rotations looked pretty good in summer league as well.

The numbers behind his contract are still unknown at this time, but Tony Jones did have some additional intel.

This means that he’s basically a lock to make the final roster. It was also made known that it is a 3 year contract. If I were guessing, his first year is guaranteed and years 2 and 3 are not. Sound familiar? It should, because almost exactly 1 year ago Royce O’Neale signed a 3 year contract with the Jazz and only the first year was guaranteed.

That signing wasn’t met with as much initial positivity as this one, but Niang has his work cut out for him to bring the same results as O’Neale. Mychal made a great point on Twitter, and I tend to agree.

It will be hard for Niang to crack such a deep Utah rotation, but I could certainly see him finding a nice role on this team as a stretch/playmaking big.