Report: Jazz to call up Paul Millsap's brother Elijah from D-League
The Utah Jazz have made some strides as a team under first-year head coach Quin Snyder, but they've hit some roadblocks in recent weeks as their entire crop of shooting guards has been struck down by the injury plague.
Starter Alec Burks is out for the season due to shoulder surgery, while rookie reserves Rodney Hood and Patrick Christopher have been knocked out for the foreseeable future with heel and knee injuries, respectively.
The Jazz have recalled Toure' Murray from the D-League and are expected to start undrafted second-year guard Ian Clark (who has logged a grand total of 246 NBA minutes) on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In the hunt for another stopgap at the position, the Jazz are continuing to mine the D-League, and have a deal in the works for Elijah Millsap - a 27-year-old, 6-foot-6 guard and the brother of Atlanta Hawks power forward Paul Millsap - according to ESPN's Marc Stein.
Elijah, who played college ball at Louisiana-Lafayette and UAB, has been a D-Leaguer since 2010 (with a brief stop in the Israeli League in early 2014), and currently plays for the Bakersfield Jam. He's a mainstay on NBA Summer League squads, but has yet to crack an NBA roster. His most recent Summer League stop was with the Philadelphia 76ers this past July.
NBA teams can begin offering 10-day contracts on Monday, which should goose the market for D-League players - none of which have been called up since Dec. 12. The Jazz don't appear to be wasting any time, and Millsap is expected to be at practice by Monday, according to Tony Jones of the Sal Lake Tribune.
Millsap is averaging 20.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.1 steals in 36.6 minutes per game for Bakersfield.