Utah Jazz sophomore Dante Exum is progressing toward next season’s return.
The operative words being “next” and “season’s.”
Though the rangy guard, whom the Jazz selected fifth overall in 2014, still isn’t expected to play at all during the 2015-16 campaign after tearing his left ACL, he’s resuming some surface-level basketball activities.
Here’s Aaron Falk and Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune with the update:
Dante Exum is still out for the season, and Derrick Favors is probably not going to play tonight as the Utah Jazz take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
But it should comfort Jazz fans that both are on the floor, working on their games. Both are moving around.
Exum — who tore his ACL last summer — is back to light running. He’s doing ballhandling drills, and he’s shooting with assistant coaches.
Exum still has a long way to go before he’s a polished player. He isn’t yet the playmaker Utah needs him to be long term, and his jumper is still iffy, bordering on broken. Missing his entire sophomore campaign is a serious setback.
But ACL injuries aren’t the career-enders or -alterers they used to be (Derrick Rose’s arc notwithstanding). And Exum has already proved valuable to the Jazz, helping anchor their defensive rise after the Enes Kanter trade last season.
Utah had the best defense post-Kanter and it wasn’t even kind of close, and they were statistically stingier with Exum on the floor, according to NBA.com. So while he’ll have some ground to make up next year, he’ll remain an instant boon for their defense, which is more than enough to keep him on the floor as he continues trying to refine his offense.
