SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 16, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah Jazz weren’t invited to the postseason party, but a handful former college basketball players are representing the Beehive State in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
Former Salt Lake Community College star Gary Payton II and Utah State center Neemias Queta begin the postseason on opposite sides of the Western Conference first-round matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings.
Queta’s former Aggies teammate Sam Merrill is the lone local representative in the Eastern Conference playoffs, now teaming with ex-Jazz star Donovan Mitchell with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jakob Poeltl, a dominating big man at the University of Utah, fell just shy of reaching the playoffs with the Toronto Raptors, who were eliminated in the play-in tournament.
Three other former college or high school basketball players in Utah saw their title hopes this season end with the close of the NBA regular season.
Former Weber State star Damian Lillard, the state’s most decorated active pro, missed the playoffs for the second year in a row and only the third time in his 11-year pro career with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Ex-Utes Kyle Kuzma and Delon Wright were reunited this season as teammates in Washington, D.C., but the Wizards finished 12th in the East.
Here’s a closer look at former Utah high school and college stars now playing in the NBA and how they fared during the 2022-23 season.
University of Utah
Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards
Kuzma enjoyed the best year of his pro career in his second season in Washington, averaging a career-high 21.2 points along with 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
Kuzma, 27, is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Wizards ($13 million) and seek a new deal in D.C. or with another NBA suitor.
“It’s not about money. I’m going to get paid regardless anywhere and here [in Washington, D.C.] too,” Kuzma said after the Wizards’ season came to an end. “It’s about: Can I come into work every day and be my best version of myself? Can I help lead guys? Can I make other players better? Can I light up rooms?”
The Flint, Michigan, native played three seasons at Utah (2014 to 2017), averaging 16.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game while shooting better than 50% from the field during his junior year.
Kuzma opted to head to the NBA after his junior season and was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 27th overall pick. He played four seasons in L.A. and won an NBA Championship with the Lakers in 2019-20.
Delon Wright, Washington Wizards
Wright had a solid inaugural season in Washington, averaging 7.4 points, 3.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game.
Wright, 30, missed nearly two months of the season with a hamstring injury, and the Wizards struggled in his absence. Washington was 26-24 with Wright in the lineup and just 9-23 without him.
Wright, who joined the Wizards prior to last season as a free agent, has played for seven teams during his first eight NBA seasons. Toronto made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and the Los Angeles native spent his first three NBA seasons with the Raptors.
Wright made a name for himself at Utah as versatile guard and elite defender, averaging 15.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists in his two seasons with the Utes.
Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors
Poeltl started his seventh NBA season with the San Antonio Spurs but was traded in February to the Raptors, returning him to the team that selected him ninth overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Poeltl’s stats improved slightly after the trade, averaging 13.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game while shooting 65.2% from the floor.
Poeltl, 27, came close to making the playoffs for the fourth time in his career as Toronto hosted a play-in game as the Eastern Conference’s ninth-place team. The Raptors blew an 18-point lead and lost 109-105 to the 10th-place Chicago Bulls.
The 7-foot-1 center from Vienna, Austria, is in the final season of his current contract and was asked during a press conference Thursday whether he’d like to return to Toronto next season.
“I think so, yeah,” he said. “Obviously, [it’s] summertime in the NBA and who knows what’s going to happen. I don’t know what we’re going to look like as a team, what my situation is going to be like. But I think, looking back at the months that I had here, I enjoyed my time and I feel like we’re kind of leaving with this bad taste in our mouths. I personally feel like I want to do better than that.”
Poeltl played two seasons at Utah, where he was a second-team All-American as a sophomore and won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award as the top collegiate center. He averaged 17.2 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting nearly 65% from the field during his sophomore season.
Utah State
Sam Merrill, Cleveland Cavaliers
Merrill spent most of the season with the Cavaliers’ G-League affiliate (Cleveland Charge) before signing a multi-year contract to return to the NBA in March.
The former Bountiful High School star saw action in five games this season for the Cavs, including a career-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting in a 106-95 loss to the Hornets on April 9. It’s the third NBA team for the former Aggies sharpshooter in his three-year pro career.
Merrill, 26, won an NBA Championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020-21 and saw limited action with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021-22 before joining the Cavaliers. He was selected in the second round (60th overall) of the 2020 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Pelicans but never played for the team.
Merrill averaged 20.9 points, 4.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds as a junior at Utah State and was selected as Mountain West Conference Player of the Year his junior and senior seasons.
Neemias Queta, Sacramento Kings
Queta saw action in only five games for the Kings this season, and all but one of those were in December. The 7-footer from Barreiro, Portugal, got into an April 9 loss to the Denver Nuggets for four minutes and made his presence felt with two rebounds and a block.
Queta, 23, spent most of the past season playing for Sacramento’s G-League affiliate (Stockton Kings), earning a spot on the All-NBA G League and NBA G League All-Defensive teams. In 43 starts for Stockton, he averaged 17.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists while leading the league in field goal percentage (68.5%) and ranking fourth in blocks per game (1.9).
Queta played three seasons at Utah State from 2018 to 2021, winning the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year twice (2019 and 2021) and setting school records for career blocks (219) and blocks per game (2.5).
He was selected by Sacramento in the second round (39th overall) of the 2021 NBA Draft and signed a two-way contract with the Kings in August 2021.
Weber State
Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
There were several bright spots in Lillard’s 11th NBA season, including scoring a career-best 32.2 points per game, making his seventh All-Star appearance and winning the 3-Point Contest on NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City.
But the Trail Blazers finished 13th in the West (33-49) and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season, leading to questions about how much longer it will be “Dame Time” in Portland.
Lillard has said he would like to remain with the Blazers, but he wants to win now and isn’t interested being part of a rebuilding project. He’s under contract with the Trail Blazers through the 2026-27 season.
“Not only will I have a decision to make, but I think the organization will too,” Lillard recently told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. “Are you gonna go young, or are we gonna get something done?”
Lillard was the NBA’s third-leading scorer and ranked fifth in 3-pointers made (244) in 2022-23. He also took home a trophy for his long-range shooting skills on All-Star Weekend in February.
Wearing a custom Weber State jersey as a tribute to his alma mater, Lillard showed off the clutch stoke that made him a two-time Big Sky Conference MVP in winning his first NBA All-Star 3-Point Contest.
The Oakland, California, native is Weber State’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 246. He’s also second in WSU history in career scoring with 1,934 points.
Lillard left the Ogden university following his junior season and was selected by the Trail Blazers with the No. 6 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Salt Lake Community College
Gary Payton II, Golden State Warriors
It’s been an eventful and challenging season for Payton, who was traded midseason and missed most of the year with a thigh injury but begins the playoffs healthy.
He’s also likely to play the biggest role in his team’s playoff success than any of the active NBA players with ties to college and high school basketball in Utah.
Payton, 30, began his seventh NBA season in Portland but was traded in February back to Golden State, where he played the previous two seasons and won a championship with the Warriors last year. He averaged 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 16 minutes per game while shooting 60.7% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range in seven games with the Warriors during the regular season.
Payton played at Salt Lake Community College from 2012 to 2014 and earned All-Region 18 honors in his freshman and sophomore seasons. He was selected to the NJCAA All-America Second Team as a sophomore and led the Bruins to back-to-back Region 18 titles.
SLCC retired Payton’s number during a game in December 2022 while he was still with the Trail Blazers. He attended the game and halftime retirement of his No. 1 with some of his Blazers teammates while in town to face the Jazz.
“I think Gary helped push SLCC to the next level where we became consistently a top 10 program in the country,” former SLCC coach Todd Phillips said at the time.
Payton transferred to Oregon State after two seasons at SLCC.
