UVA Basketball alum Jay Huff finally has an NBA home, in Memphis, which signed Huff to a four-year deal on Monday.
Huff, a 2021 UVA alum, has been bouncing around the G League and the periphery of the NBA for the past three seasons.
Too good for the G League, where he averaged 16.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game, shooting 62.2 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from three, Huff was only to get several cups of coffee in the Association.
Huff’s career-high in NBA games came last season when he got into 20 games with the Denver Nuggets, averaging a modest 2.5 minutes per game.
Huff signed a two-way contract with Memphis in the summer, and has been getting regular minutes at center behind rookie Zach Edey in the Grizzlies’ rotation.
It’s only three games, but Huff is averaging 13.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 19.0 minutes per game, shooting 63.6 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from three.
It says a lot about what the Memphis front office thinks it has seen from Huff in the preseason and through three games of the regular season that it decided to sign him long-term.
The Grizz could have left him on his two-way deal for another several weeks before having to make a decision.
His NBA career arc resembles his progress as a collegian. Tony Bennett redshirted the 7’1” unicorn in his true freshman season, and Huff only played sparingly as a redshirt freshman and sophomore, averaging 8.8 and 9.3 minutes per game, respectively, in those two seasons.
He finally started getting big minutes as a redshirt junior, logging 25.0 minutes per game, averaging 8.5 points and 6.2 rebounds, before coming into his own as a redshirt senior, averaging 27.0 minutes per game, and putting up 13.0 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
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Chris Graham
