The Return of Dante Exum, Vol. II

It’s the day that we’ve all been waiting for. The day that we’ve all heavily anticipated and speculated on for the last several months. Dante Exum is back. Back again.

The Jazz announced Wednesday afternoon that Dante Exum would be officially active and available for tonight’s game against the Phoenix Suns. Yes, THOSE Phoenix Suns that Exum injurred his shoulder against in the preseason (chill out, TJ Warren). It’s not clear as to how much Exum will play tonight, but considering the Jazz’s need for a backup guard with Neto out, we can probably assume he will get some decent minutes in the rotation.

I’m excited to see what Dante Exum will do, returning from what is his second longer-term injury in his young NBA career. He rehabilitation has gone “flawlessly” according to GM Dennis Lindsey, and he has looked great in what we’ve seen in workout and practice videos.

Jazz players voiced their excitment to see Dante’s status upgrade to active for tonight’s game.

The Return of Dante Exum, Vol. II begins tonight. We have missed his flash. We have missed his defense, his energy, and his aussie charm. We’re all glad that you have made it back, Dante. Here’s to hoping you return to be the best player you can be.

If we have learned anything this season, it’s that Joe Ingles is anything but your “average Joe”. Ingles gets some light-humored flack about looking like the dad at your local YMCA or church ball game, and often teased about his “slow-mo” basketball style of play. But while these yahoos were poking fun at Joe Ingles, he’s out here torching nets and breaking freaking records.

Joe Ingles has made 172 three-pointers this season, shooting an NBA-leading average of 45% (!!!) from behind the arch. To put these numbers into perspective, only SEVEN other players in NBA history have had seasons with these numbers. If Ingles can maintain his percentage he would join Steph Curry (2x), JJ Redick, Kyle Korver (3x), Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Glen Rice, and Dana Barros as the only players in NBA history to have such a season shooting three-pointers. How’s that for average Joe?

Ingles is only 7 three-pointers away from breaking the Utah Jazz franchise record for most threes in a season, held by Randy Foye. Ingles is having an amazing season, and you might have not noticed it without looking at his shooting stats.

The Jazz have been winning a lot of games over the last two months, and fans are crowding in to see this historic turnaround.

18 sellouts in a row and counting at Vivint Arena, and we shouldn’t see these slow down for the rest of the season, including the playoffs.

Here’s your social media pettiness update for the week:

Ricky Rubio was seen stanning for Donovan Mitchell in the comments of an Instagram post of The Score. The picture’s caption claimed that Simmons “had it in the bag”, and Rubio had something to say about it.

In another post from the same account, Rudy Gobert was left off the graphic COMPLETELY for the Defensive Player of the Year award, which is pretty outrageous. Rudy and Ricky had some fun in the comments of that one as well.

I mean, really???? Ricky is obviously the GOAT teammate though, at least we know that.

Outside of basketball, the Jazz did something awesome, yet again.

This is just really great. Great for the organization, great for the kids, the parents, and everyone involved. And if you didn’t already love Rudy Gobert to pieces, this might put you over the top.

As fierce and dominant as Rudy Gobert is on the court, he sure knows how to make the kids’ days with his kindness and active participation in the community and events like this. Great move by the Utah Jazz organization and Rudy Gobert. Making all of us proud.