Utah Jazz Scout Old Friends As NBA Draft Approaches

The NBA finals may be locked in a 2-2 series tie headed back to Oklahoma City tonight, but for 28 other fanbases their focus has been partly elsewhere for some time.

For the Jazz, they last played a meaningful basketball game, and meaningful is debatable, back on April 13^th.

This means that Jazz fans among other fans have been dreaming of the NBA draft and who their team may select come June 25^th.

Utah has dibs on the 5^th, 21^st, 43^rd and 53^rd overall selections and as one could imagine that gives them a wide variety of talent to peruse through.

From high profile players to guys right on the bubble of being drafted or undrafted Utah has a lot of cards they can play.

With such a range, it can be difficult to keep track of everyone that Utah may show interest in in the form of a workout.

Well, HoopsHype has Jazz fans covered just like that after publishing a list of every known workout for every NBA team.

From surefire lottery guys to Tre Johnson and Jeremiah Fears to zero projections Ethan Taylor and Milos Uzan, the Jazz have reportedly welcomed in about 28 players up to this point of the process.

Some names of note outside of the familiars include a couple of players with Utah ties.

Max Shulga is the highest projected of Utah’s attendees, coming in at the 64^th overall spot on HoopsHype’s list.

Shulga suited up for the Utah State Aggies 90 times from 2021-23 averaging 6.6 points, 3 boards and 2 assists while shooting 37.4 percent from deep.

His last season in Logan saw the guard average 11.9 points, 4 assist and 4.5 boards on 36.4 shooting from distance on 4 attempts a game.

Shulga would help USU roll to a 26-9 record with a tournament appearance that year that witnessed the Aggies reach the big dance before eventually falling to Mizzou.

When then head coach, Ryan Odom, jetted to VCU, Shulga followed where he broke out.

In his two seasons at Virginia commonwealth, Shulga put up totals of 14.5 points, 3.8 assists, 5.2 rebounds and shot just above a 40 percent marker from three.

Shulga isn’t the only Aggie to visit Salt Lake City this offseason as Ian Martinez also made an appearance.

Despite HoopsHype leaving him unranked, Martinez has been a stalwart piece of Utah State hoops the past two seasons.

But his Utah ties simply don’t lie with the Aggies as Martinez enrolled at the University of Utah for his freshman season, appearing 25 times for the Utes.

It was short lived however as Martinez would transfer to Maryland the following season and spend two years with the Terps.

Although a solid role player his last season there, Martinez would put forth his best seasons from 2023-2025, when he came back to the beehive state, this time with the Aggies.

At Utah State, Martinez would average 14.8 points, 2.3 assists, 3.5 boards while shooting 45 percent from the field and 37 percent from deep.

Playing 68 games in Logan, Martinez would start 63 of them and would finish as the 2^nd leading scorer his first year and the primary scoring option his second year despite two different coaches.

Martinez stayed loyal to USU through some uncertain times and is highly revered by Aggies fans.

Also, this certainly helped his cause:

In two years Martinez played in three tournament games for Utah State including a 21 point showing VS TCU in the 2023-2024 opening round as the Aggies downed the Horned Frogs.

Lastly, Deivon Smith also got some time getting personal with the Jazz and it’s worth noting that he begin his collegiate ascension as a Runnin Ute.

Smith may best be known for his role on this last year’s St. Johns squad but in 2023-2024, Smith was starting 21 games for Utah.

Fans were crushed to see him enter the portal at the end of the year as he was the definition of a do it all player.

Despite a smaller sample size thanks to injury during his Utah tenure, Smith was the 3^rd leading scorer on the team at 13.3 points while shooting almost 41 percent from deep and snagging 6.3 rebounds a game to complement a gorgeous 7.1 assists a night, a powerful team high.

Whoever the Jazz end up selecting, it’s always fun to see former friends come through the ranks as they try to live out their dream.

Utah could snag any of these athletes or they couldn’t.

No one on this list is guaranteed to go to Utah as the Jazz could go in entirely different directions then what’s hinted at here.

A workout doesn’t translate to anything specifically but an opportunity to impress the team hosting you.

But whether here or elsewhere, it’s always fun to see former Utah collegiate players make the pro’s and all three of the former Utah hoopers will hope to have their name called on draft night.

The NBA draft starts at 6:00 Mountain time on June 25^th available on ABC and ESPN.