Former IU star forward Juwan Morgan can have as long of a professional basketball career as he wants.
The only question at this point is where he will play.
After not being selected in the 2019 NBA Draft, Morgan signed a Summer League contract with the Utah Jazz.
The 2019 NBA Summer League has now concluded for Utah, and the Waynesville, Missouri native appeared in a total of six contests for the Jazz — two in the Utah session and four in Las Vegas.
Here is Morgan’s game log for all six contests.
Morgan didn’t see extended minutes in any game, which isn’t altogether uncommon in the Summer League. He also did not appear in a few games.
Two things stand out about Morgan’s experience.
First, he clearly started to trend favorably from a production standpoint as the action wore on.
When you examine Morgan’s production on a per-40 minute basis, it is also clear that he was very active when he saw the floor — and that is the second thing that caught our attention.
Here are Morgan’s per-40 numbers for his six appearances.
The double-double is a familiar stat line to Hoosier fans.
The question will be whether Morgan did enough during the past couple weeks to address the primary concerns regarding his game.
Morgan needed to show Utah and the rest of the NBA that he can play more on the perimeter on both ends of the floor, including the ability to knock down three-point shots.
It certainly isn’t out of the question that Morgan signs a deal with the Jazz.
The most likely next step for Morgan will be to sign either a two-way contract or an NBA G-League contract.
The G-League describes the two-way contract on their website like this:
Beginning in the 2017 offseason, NBA rosters expanded from 15 to 17 players with the addition of two spots for players under “Two-Way Contracts.”
NBA teams may have up to two players under NBA Two-Way Contracts who will spend the bulk of the season in the NBA G League and not more than 45 days with their NBA team. Two-Way players are paid a corresponding daily amount based on the number of days they play in each league.
In the G-League Morgan would have the opportunity to prove himself and earn his shot at the NBA following the same path as Thomas Bryant and Yogi Ferrell.
An international deal is another possibility.
In any event, the future should be quite bright for Morgan.
See also: Morgan isn’t thrilled with new wardrobe requirements.
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