The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has elected to exercise its third-year team options for guards Danté Exum and Rodney Hood, as well as its fourth-year options on guard Trey Burke and center Rudy Gobert. The options for all four players are for the 2016-17 season.
The 20-year-old Exum (6-6, 190, Australia) is entering his second NBA season after appearing in all 82 games (41 starts) as a rookie and averaging 4.8 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 22.2 minutes. Exum became only the 10th rookie in Jazz history to play in all 82 games, scoring in double figures in 13 games and leading the team in assists 11 times. He helped the Jazz to a 24-17 record as a starter and was selected to compete in the 2015 Rising Stars Challenge during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in New York.
Hood (6-8, 206, Duke) is entering his second NBA season after averaging 8.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists, hitting .365 (62-170) from three-point range, in 21.3 minutes of 50 appearances (21 starts) during his rookie campaign. The 22-year-old was selected as the NBA’s Western Conference Rookie of the Month during the final month of the season after upping his averages to 16.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals in seven games during April. He scored 20-plus points in three of those games, and five times overall on the season.
Burke (6-1, 191, Michigan), 22, is entering his third NBA season and has appeared in 146 games (111 starts) during his first two seasons, owning averages of 12.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 31.2 minutes. He averaged12.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 30.1 minutes per game in 76 games (43 starts) during the 2014-15 season. He scored 10-plus points on 52 occasions and 20-plus points in 11 contests , posting three double-doubles as a second-year player. A 2014 All-NBA Rookie First Teamselection, Burke was chosen to participate in the NBA’s Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star Weekend in each of his first two seasons.
The 23-year-old Gobert (7-1, 245, France) is also entering his third NBA season after appearing in all 82 games (37 starts) in 2014-15 andaveraging 8.4 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 26.3 minutes while placing third in NBA Most Improved Player balloting and fifth in voting for NBA Defensive Player of the Year. In his second year, Gobert improved both his scoring and rebounding averages by more than six per game over his rookie season, and tallied the second most blocked shots in the NBA (189), including an NBA-best 134 blocks after the All-Star break. Gobert logged 25 double-doubles on the season and became just the third player in Jazz history to block 180-plus shots in a season (Mark Eaton, Andrei Kirilenko). The Jazz finished 22-15 in Gobert’s 37 starts. For his career, Gobert has appeared in 127 games (37 starts), owning averages of 6.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 20.4 minutes .
Exum (fifth overall) and Hood (23rd overall) were Jazz selections in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft, while both Burke (ninth overall) and Gobert (27th overall) were 2013 first-round picks whose rights were acquired by the Jazz in separate draft-night trades.
