The Jazz have renounced their rights to free agent center Jeff Withey and former second-round pick Tyrone Wallace, according to RealGM’s transactions log. The moves coincided with the club starting to make its recent signings official, having formally locked up Jonas Jerebko on Monday.
Withey, who appeared in 51 games for the Jazz last season, doesn’t appear to be in the team’s plans for the 2017/18 campaign. Utah selected rookie center Tony Bradley in last month’s draft and has added Jerebko and Ekpe Udoh in free agency, fortifying the club’s depth behind Rudy Gobert. The Jazz could still re-sign Withey if they want to, but they can no longer use his Early Bird rights to do so.
As for Wallace, he was “Mr. Irrelevant” in the 2016 draft, selected with the 60th overall pick a year ago. The 23-year-old point guard spent last season with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s G League affiliate, while the Jazz maintained his NBA rights. Now, however, he’ll be free to sign with any team as an unrestricted free agent.
Removing Withey and Wallace from their books appear to be minor bookkeeping moves for the Jazz. While they won’t have much of an impact on the team’s roster, those moves further signal that Utah is creating as much cap room as possible in order to compete its signings of Jerebko, Udoh, Thabo Sefolosha, and Royce O’Neale. They also signal that the roster is just about full, with no room for players like Wallace to vie for a 15-man spot.
Wallace wouldn’t have had a cap hold, correct as a second rounder? This must have been just to give him a shot with another organization…
Yeah, good point, I was thinking of unsigned first-rounders. I imagine with 16 guys already under contract there, they recognized there wasn’t a path to a roster spot for him and let him find another opportunity. Updated the post to reflect that.
This Jazz GM is very smart, Gobert is arguably a top 10 player and the best rim protector in the game. Why are people making Hayward out to be Lebron? He is a very good player, an all-star level player but the Jazz still look like a playoff team. Hood’s offense will increase and I could see him average 17-21 ppg next season at the 2. Rubio gets to play under another defensive minded coach in Snyder and add on that he’ll share the ball more then Hill and get others on the team more involved. Mitchell and Exum can deliver off the bench also, I think they slip to 7th-8th in the West but man what if Rubio finally peaks?
Withey is a top 10 player? I wouldn’t even put Gobert or Hayward in the top 10
Wait never mind misread that