Could the Jazz’ improved roster include a former Aggie?
The NBA Summer League is upon us — a time to try out different rosters of rookies, second year players and unsigned free agents.
Former Utah State Aggie guard/forward Spencer Butterfield was named to the Utah Jazz Summer League for the first time.
He has appeared in several games alongside Jazz players like Joel Bolomboy, Trey Lyles and Tibor Pleiss. It is inspiring to see a former Aggie out on the floor alongside NBA players in his home state, making the most of his time and finding ways to improve.
Butterfield, the 6-foot-3 powerhouse who was born in Provo, UT, played two seasons for the Aggies and averaged 12.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists his senior year — leading the team in scoring. He was one of the top 3-point shooters in Aggie history, shooting 44.7 percent from the long range. He also earned an Honorable Mention All-Mountain West and was named the WAC Player of the Week twice.
He has played overseas in Spain and Juventus, Lithuania last season where he averaged 14.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game — helping him earn an invitation to the Jazz Summer League.
A little overseas experience can’t hurt when it comes to playing alongside other professional players, and in Butterfield’s case, it definitely helped. Even though he is primarily a bench player for the Jazz Summer League, he had some opportunity to make an impact in a few of the games.
As part of Utah’s recent trade for Boris Diaw, guard Olivier Hanlan was moved to San Antonio and Butterfield received the opportunity to start against the Boston Celtics in the second game of the Jazz’s schedule.
While the Celtics defeated the Jazz 89-82, Butterfield played 23 minutes, scored eight points and logged six rebounds.
Butterfield also came off the bench in an 86-75 loss against the Philadelphia 76ers for 18 minutes of play to score nine points.
In an 88-73 loss to the Washington Wizards in the first game of the Las Vegas Summer League, Butterfield finished with two points in 13 minutes of play. However, in a 79-72 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, Butterfield scored 11 points, including 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point line, in nearly nine minutes of play — pulling out the second-highest scoring performance among Jazz bench players.
There is no doubt Butterfield made an impact coming off of the bench in the Jazz’s first victory of the summer, just trailing in scoring behind Tyrone Wallace with 15 points.
Although Butterfield was not drafted to the NBA, he improved his skills overseas in Spain and Lithuania and eventually made it back to Utah. He expressed his excitement to sport the Jazz jersey and play in front of his family.
“The more professional years you have under your belt, the more confidence you gain, the more you learn just how to play the game,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I think my knowledge of the game has grown quite a bit, just knowing how to find my spots and be effective.”
With that being said, Aggies should never pass up the opportunity for improvement because it could lead to another great opportunity. While the majority of Aggies may not be NBA superstars, or even drafted by the NBA, this doesn’t mean they can’t continue to grow as players like Butterfield did.
I’ve found that multiple former Aggie players have the desire to play overseas including Grayson Moore and Chris Smith — and they should go for it.
Although many critics said Jalen Moore was not good enough for the NBA, he had the opportunity to play against good players, get his name out there and work on developing leadership skills even if it did not work out.
And we still get our leading scorer and rebounder back for his senior year.