National Basketball Association

Utah Jazz Pick Up Options on Hood, Exum & Lyles

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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In what was the ultimate no-brainer move of the fall, the Utah Jazz have exercised team options on Rodney Hood, Dante Exum and Trey Lyles.

Coming into the 2016-17 season, the Utah Jazz find themselves in complicated contractual situations with multiple players. With Gordon Hayward set to become a free agent this summer and both Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors eligible for extensions, Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey has had a lot to mull over in recent months.

Other personnel decisions have much more clear-cut solutions. To that end, Lindsey and the Jazz pulled the trigger on the ultimate no-brainer move just ahead of opening night.

The team announced on Monday that it has exercised its third-year team option for forward Trey Lyles. Utah also picked up its fourth-year options on Dante Exum and Rodney Hood. This means that all three players will be on the roster for the 2017-18 season.

Per Jazz policy, financial terms were not released. However, each player will hit the marks prescribed by their rookie contracts. Of the trio, Exum’s ’17-18 salary will be the largest at just under $5 million. All three are slated to make less than $4 million this season.

While an announcement was made and having them around for another year is a good thing, this is standard operating procedure. Players drafted in the first round don’t have a lot of wiggle room for big paydays in their first years in the league as their salary is scaled according to their draft position.

Essentially what this does is allow the Jazz to keep their young prospects on the roster at a bargain rate. Given the situations with Hayward, Gobert and Favors, it also gives the team another year to figure out their finances before doling out bit dollar contracts to Exum and Hood (followed by Lyles the next summer).

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Given their collective performance for the Jazz, it’s a pretty safe assumption that all three will be in line for big raises at that point.

Hood is emerging as one of the league’s best shooting guards and averaged 14.5 points per game last season. Exum missed all of last year, but is already an elite defender as a rookie and looked more comfortable in the offense throughout preseason.

Lyles, meanwhile, started 33 games as a rookie, averaging better than six points per contests and shooting 38 percent from three-point range.

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