Tag: Royce O’Neale

Nets trade a first-round pick to Jazz for versatile Royce O’Neale

The Brooklyn Nets trade a first-round pick to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Royce O’Neale.

The Brooklyn Nets are in the middle of a crisis after star player Kevin Durant officially requested a trade away from the Nets that puts them back at square 1 in terms of building a title contender in the Eastern Conference.

In the middle of the Durant debacle, the Nets did make a minor move on Thursday before free agency begins by making a trade with the Utah Jazz.

The Nets will send a first-round pick to Utah in exchange for versatile forward Royce O’Neale. The 5-year player out of Baylor averaged 7.4 points and 4.8 rebounds along with 2.5 assists while shooting 38.9% from deep in his fifth season in the league in 2021-22. He has played for the Jazz his entire career.

Even though the Nets will likely look very different on opening night in the 2022-23 season, the addition of O’Neale is a good one in terms of adding a 3-and-D player to the roster.

This post originally appeared on Nets Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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Anatomy of an upset: The biggest plays from Houston’s win at Utah

The young and rebuilding Rockets weren’t supposed to win at Utah, but led by the likes of Kevin Porter Jr. and Garrison Mathews, they found a way. Here’s a look back at their biggest plays.

Young and rebuilding teams like the 2021-22 Rockets aren’t supposed to beat perceived Western Conference contenders, and especially not on the road. But that’s exactly what Houston (14-32) somehow managed to do at Utah (29-16) on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.

For the Rockets, who had five players score in double figures as part of a balanced effort, it was a third win in their last four games — all away from home. Sharpshooter Garrison Mathews led the way in the 116-111 win (box score) with a team-high 23 points off the bench, including 5-of-9 on 3-pointers (55.6%). But he had plenty of help, as well.

Veterans Bojan Bogdanovic (29 points, 5 rebounds), Rudy Gobert (23 points, 9 rebounds), and Jordan Clarkson (19 points, 4 assists) led the Jazz, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace. After putting up 5 points in the first five-plus minutes of the second half, Houston exploded to score 54 in under 19 minutes to finish it out, leading to a shocking road win.

Here’s a look back at some of the key plays and sequences from Wednesday in Salt Lake City. We’re largely focusing on offense, since the Rockets have risen from an offensive rating of 104.6 in their first six January games — good for No. 24 in the NBA over that span — to 115.5 over the current 3-1 road trip, which ranks No. 6 in the league in that run.

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