Elijah Hughes starts NBA career with a bang

Before draft night, no one knew where Elijah Hughes would end up. Well ... no one other than Dennis Lindsey of course, the GM of the Utah Jazz. He had his eyes on last season’s ACC leading scorer when teams like the Charlotte Hornets and the Sacramento Kings were eyeing him. They decided to pass up on him. Now that the former Syracuse player is on the Jazz, he can be somebody that can be offensively reliable immediately. Through his first two preseason games with Utah, that’s exactly what I saw.

In his debut against the Phoenix Suns on December 12th Hughes scored 9 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, dropped an assist and went 4-6 from the field. He did it all in 12 minutes of action. Not too bad for a rookie in his debut right? Although it is just preseason, he still showed his teammates, the organization, and of course us that he can play at the next level.

Yesterday when the Utah Jazz took on the Suns again, Hughes reciprocated almost the same performance. He scored 8 points, grabbed 2 boards, had a positive plus/minus of +2, and shot 3-8 from the field. This was all in 12 minutes again.

Hughes is proving that he’s a pro, nothing new for us though. What will dictate whether or not he will be seeing more minutes during the regular season is his consistency, his defense, and him just getting familiar with Quin Snyder’s playbook. Best of luck to him as he continues being great!