Armaan Franklin has signed an Exhibit-10 deal with the NBA champion Denver Nuggets, and Virginia teammate Kihei Clark has signed to play with the Utah Jazz entry in the 2023 NBA Summer League.
The signings are among those trickling out in the aftermath of the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday, as teams are looking to fill out their rosters for the upcoming 2023-2024 season.
Franklin, a 6’4” guard, led UVA in scoring in 2022-2023, averaging 12.4 points per game, on 42.4 percent shooting from the floor overall and 37.3 percent shooting from three-point range.
Clark, a 5’9” guard, was a five-year starter at Virginia, going all the way back to 2018-2019, when he was a key contributor to UVA’s national championship team.
As a grad senior in 2022-2023, Clark averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 assists per game, shooting 39.9 percent overall and 35.2 percent from three.
Clark’s deal with the Jazz is for the Summer League only, so he’s looking to impress in the two-week league, which tips off on July 3, to be able to earn an invite to training camp or a spot with the Jazz’s G-League team.
Franklin’s Exhibit-10 deal is a little more solid, but not much more. Exhibit-10 contracts are one-year, non-guaranteed minimum contracts that can be converted into two-way deals that allow teams to split a player’s time between the NBA and their G-League affiliate.
Former Virginia stars Ty Jerome (Golden State), Mamadi Diakite (Cleveland) and Jay Huff (Washington) were on two-way deals in the 2022-2023 season.
Other UVA alums in the NBA last season were Malcolm Brogdon (Boston), Anthony Gill (Washington), Joe Harris (Brooklyn), Sam Hauser (Boston), De’Andre Hunter (Atlanta), Braxton Key (Detroit) and Trey Murphy III (New Orleans).
Justin Anderson, a 2015 first-round NBA Draft pick, and Marial Shayok, a 2019 second-round NBA Draft pick, each spent the 2022-2023 season in the G-League.
We’re still on the lookout for news on Jayden Gardner, the 6’7” forward who, like Franklin, played the past two seasons at Virginia after transferring in ahead of the 2021-2022 season.
Gardner averaged 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in 2022-2023, shooting 51.0 percent from the floor after leading the team in scoring in 2021-2022, putting up 15.3 points and a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game, shooting 50.1 percent from the floor.
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Chris Graham
