Luka Samanic agrees to multi-year deal with the Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are signing Luka Samanic to a multi-year deal, league sources confirmed to the Deseret News.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the deal.
“His talent is sort of obvious in some ways,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “He’s 6’9, 6’10, can run, jump, move his feet, he’s got good touch and good looking shot and he’s 23 years old.”
The deal will keep Samanic on the roster through the remainder of the 2022-23 season and is partially guaranteed for the 2023-24 season. Samanic said that he expects to be with the team during the summer and could potentially be playing Summer League games for the Jazz.
Related
The deal allows for Samanic to be with the Jazz on the training camp roster but the Jazz could still choose to waive him before the start of the 2023-24 season. With that in mind, Samanic said that he plans on making a quick trip home to Croatia to see his family before returning to Utah to work with the Jazz coaching staff at Zions Bank Basketball Campus.
“I have a lot of work to do this summer,” Samanic said. “I’m gonna ask coach and do whatever they want. Shooting, defense, doesn’t matter... Whatever they say.”
Samanic was the 19th overall pick in the 2019 draft. After two underwhelming season in San Antonio, where Samanic worked with Hardy when he was an assistant coach with the Spurs, the young forward was waived and found himself on the outside of the NBA looking in.
He signed on to play in the G League, where’s he’s been over the last two seasons. After working on his shot, his body and admitting that he had a lot of growing up to do, he got a 10-day offer from the Jazz.
“He came in with a different level of maturity in terms of like, what it takes to really stick in the league and how his approach needs to change and how he can impact the game,” Hardy said. “It’s not that he wasn’t those things the last time I was with him. He was just young and immature and had just moved across the world. We’re very happy that we’ve got him and it’s going to be great to work with him this summer.”
