Nick Covington

Lester Hudson Joins Jazz For Camp

The Jazz have finalized their roster for camp by adding a 20th player, the maximum allowed before the regular season gets underway. The 20th man on the preseason roster is free agent guard Lester Hudson, according to the team (via Twitter).

Hudson, 29, has played parts of three NBA seasons with the Celtics, Wizards, Cavs, and Grizzlies (twice). The 6'3" guard didn't play in an NBA regular season game last season, but had a successful stint with the Dongguan Leopards in China, for whom he averaged 27.5 PPG in 15 contests. Hudson worked out for the Knicks earlier this summer, and reportedly looked very impressive at a May D-League camp in Chicago.

Despite having 20 players on the training camp roster, the Jazz are only carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Ian Clark, who has a $200K guarantee, looks like a decent bet to make the team as well. If he does, that would leave two potential openings for the likes of Hudson, Brian CookMike Harris, Justin Holiday, Dwayne Jones, Scott Machado, and Dominic McGuire.

It had been reported that Weber State product Nick Covington would also be in camp with the Jazz, but with 20 players on board, it doesn't appear there's any room for him in Utah at the moment. It's not clear whether the Jazz opted not to sign Covington or whether he's still in their plans in some form, but for now, the club will move forward without him on the roster.

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Jazz Announce Three Camp Signings

The Jazz have officially announced the signings of Brian Cook, Justin Holiday and Dwayne Jones. Agreements involving all three had been reported this month. The team has 19 players under contract, though that doesn't include Nick Covington's deal, which we heard about this weekend.

Cook, Holiday and Jones all have NBA experience, though Cook has by far the most among the three, and he ranks in the top 10 among all of this year's NBA camp invitees in games played. Holiday is the only one of the trio to have appeared in a game last season, as he saw action in nine contests for the Sixers, alongside younger brother Jrue Holiday.

The Jazz have only 12 fully guaranteed contracts and Ian Clark's partially guaranteed deal, but with a full contingent of players for camp, none of the players on non-guaranteed deals seem like safe bets for the opening-night roster.

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Jazz To Sign Nick Covington

Jody Genessy of the Deseret News tweets that the Jazz formally offered a training camp invitation to Nick Covington, who has accepted. The 6'2" guard turned 28 this summer, and last played for alma mater Weber State in 2005/06. 

For the last three years he's played in the NBA's Development league for Iowa, Sioux Falls and last season with Erie. With the Bayhawks in Erie last season, Covington averaged 9.4 points, 2.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds in 26 minutes of action per game.

In 47 games total, 38 of which he started, he actually shot worse from the field (39.5%) than he did from beyond the 3-point arc (39.9%).

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