The Utah Jazz are an up-and-coming team that had a solid finish to the 2014-15 season and have been a fairly popular pick to be a sleeper playoff team in the Western Conference in 2015-16. Utah's chances of being that sleeper team might have taken a hit on Tuesday, as it is being reported that point guard Dante Exum suffered a serious injury and might have torn his AC, according to Tim Montemayor a Jazz broadcaster.
Exum was playing for his native Australian team in an exhibition game in Slovenia when he hurt the knee on what was reportedly a non-contact play, which is often the case with ACL injuries. Very soon after the injury, there were reports that the Jazz were concerned that it was an ACL injury for Exum. It has yet to be confirmed, but all signs point to Exum having a torn ACL. If this is the case, Exum will have to undergo surgery and miss the entire 2015-16 season for the Jazz.
Exum was the fifth overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft and is expected to be a big part of Utah's future. Exum is still just 20 years old and should be back playing by age 21, but this is still a huge disappointment for the Jazz and their fans, as they have high hopes coming into this season.
Last season, Exum played in all 82 games (41 starts) and averaged just 4.8 points and 2.4 assists in 22.2 minutes per game while making only 35 percent of his field goal attempts and 31 percent of his three point attempts. Exum didn't have a great rookie season, but the Jazz were expecting the young Aussie to take a big step forward this year.
With Exum likely done for the year, the onus now falls completely on Trey Burke at the point guard position. Burke is not much of a distributor, and in his two years in the NBA, he has shot a very low percentage from the field (37 percent), but the Jazz are going to need major improvement from him if they hope to take a step forward. The only other healthy point guard on the Jazz roster besides Burke is Bryce Cotton, who played in just 15 games last season but figures to now have a more prominent role in Utah as Burke's likely backup.
