SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 24, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Damian Lillard begins his 12th NBA season with a new team, different conference and favorable odds for winning his first championship.
The former Weber State star sought an offseason trade to the Miami Heat but ended up with a different Eastern Conference contender, joining fellow perennial All-NBA selection Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.
“I’m excited,” Lillard says on the Bucks’ YouTube channel. “This is where I’m supposed to be right now. It’s time to win.”
The All-NBA tandem has boosted the Bucks to the second-best odds (+400) of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy at the end of the season, trailing only the Boston Celtics (+389), according to Caesars Sportsbook.
“He just makes us so, so much better,” Bucks center Brook Lopez says.
“Everybody knows the type of guy he is, the type of player he is,” adds small forward Khris Middleton. “He’s one of a kind.”
Lillard is one of seven former Utah college and high school basketball players who open the 2023-24 NBA season this week on active rosters.
The group includes three former University of Utah stars: Kyle Kuzma, Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright. Kuzma and Wright remain teammates with the Washington Wizards, while Poeltl re-signed with the Raptors after being traded to Toronto last season.
Utah State is represented by Sam Merrill, who begins his fourth NBA season with his fourth team, the Cleveland Cavaliers; and Neemias Queta, who agreed to a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics after two seasons with the Sacramento Kings.
The only other current NBA player with Utah ties is Golden State Warriors guard Gary Payton II, who played at Salt Lake Community College from 2012 to 2014.
Lillard, 33, spent his previous 11 seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, the team that drafted him out of Weber State with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.
The 6-foot-2 guard is a seven-time All-NBA selection and a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
The Oakland, California, native played in 769 games over 11 seasons while averaging 25.2 points, 6.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds in 36.3 minutes per game for the Blazers. He led Portland to eight playoff appearances, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2019.
There were several bright spots in Lillard’s final season in Portland, including scoring a career-best 32.2 points per game, making his seventh All-Star appearance and winning the 3-Point Contest while wearing a custom Weber State jersey on NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City.
Lillard 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.
University of Utah
Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards
Kuzma returns for a third season with Washington after signing a four-year, $102 million deal in the offseason.
“I’m excited about this year,” he said. “I think we have a team that’s going to play really, really fast, get up a lot of 3s because we have shooters.”
The 6-9 forward 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.
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, 28, 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.
Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors
It turns out the San Antonio Spurs did Poeltl a favor by trading him to Toronto last season, as the former Utes center opted to sign a four-year, $80 million free-agent deal to remain with the Raptors.
“Excited for my eighth NBA season to start,” Poeltl said on social media Tuesday. “I like our team and our chances. Let’s go Raptors!”
Poeltl, 28, opened last season with the Spurs but was traded in February to the Raptors, returning him to the team that selected him ninth overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. His stats improved slightly after the trade, averaging 13.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game while shooting 65.2% from the floor.
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.
Delon Wright, Washington Wizards
Wright begins his second season in Washington, where he averaged 7.4 points, 3.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game in 2022-23.
Wright, 31, 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 joined the Wizards prior to last season as a free agent and 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.
Utah State
Sam Merrill, Cleveland Cavaliers
Merrill spent much of last 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 last 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 team for Merrill, who begins his fourth NBA season.
The former Aggies sharpshooter averaged more than 20 points per game while shooting 44% from 3-point range for the Cavaliers’ 2023 Summer League championship team.
Merrill, 27, 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, Boston Celtics
Queta signed to a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics in September after two seasons with the Sacramento Kings.
The 7-footer from Barreiro, Portugal, had a solid preseason with Boston, averaging 9.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game.
Queta, 24, spent most of the 2022-23 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.
Salt Lake Community College
Gary Payton II, Golden State Warriors
Payton begins his eighth NBA season and his second stint with the Golden State Warriors.
The 6-2 guard and son of Hall of Fame point guard Gary Payton was traded midseason in 2022-23 and missed most of the season with a thigh injury. He opened last season in Portland but was traded back to Golden State, where he played the previous two seasons and won a championship with the Warriors in 2021-22.
Payton, 30, 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 last 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.
Payton transferred to Oregon State after two seasons at SLCC.
Fun fact: His nickname is “The Mitten” for his defensive skills and those of his father, “The Glove,” though the younger Payton reportedly prefers “Young Glove.”
