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Orlando, Fla. • The Jazz and Trey Burke officially parted ways this past summer, with general manager Dennis Lindsey trading his former prized point guard to the Washington Wizards in exchange for a future second round pick.
That, however, wasn't the last the Jazz have heard their onetime No. 9 lottery pick.
In a recent HoopsHype.com blog post — which is published by USA Today — Burke looked back on his time with the Jazz, and it wasn't a fond memory. Burke accused the Jazz organization of holding him back, and playing point guards such as Raul Neto and Dante Exum over him, when he thought he was the better player.
"They couldn't break me," Burke said. "That's what they tried to do. They couldn't break me, though. They gave me DNPs [Did not play]; everybody asked me what's going on, why aren't you playing; there's a reason everybody asked me that."
There's not much debate about this: Burke struggled at the end of his stint in Utah, after the Jazz traded up in the 2013 lottery to acquire the former University of Michigan star. He began the 2014-2015 season as a starter, but lost that spot to rookie Exum. He then fell out of the rotation almost completely last season, as the Jazz went with Neto as a starter, and eventually traded for Shelvin Mack.
Still, Burke was the unquestioned starter during his rookie season. And even if he lost time to Exum in his second season, he began that season as a starter as well. He began to lose time when coach Quin Snyder became unhappy with his defense.
Utah attempted to trade Burke at the deadline last February, but couldn't get a deal done. And to his credit, Burke didn't make waves publicly, though he did express his displeasure at falling out of Snyder's rotation by the end of the season.
However, Burke has also struggled in his brief tenure with the Wizards. He did score a season-high 18 points on Wednesday in a blowout win over the Boston Celtics. But Burke is averaging just 4.7 points and 0.9 assists a night with Washington. He was brought in to be John Wall's primary backup at the point guard spot. But he's lost time to 6-foot-7 rookie Tomas Satoransky.
Rounding into form?
Second year forward Trey Lyles had his most efficient offensive game of the season on Wednesday in Charlotte, scoring 10 points and shooting 5-of-10 from the field. More importantly, he mixed his offense up, driving to the basket and spotting up for perimeter shots. He was aggressive off the dribble, and seemed more comfortable than he had been in the past.
The Jazz lost to Charlotte, but Lyles shot 50 percent from the field for the first time this season, and looked more like the weapon off the bench the Jazz thought he would be.
Hill injury update
Jazz point guard George Hill has been listed as questionable on the team injury report, in advance of Friday's meeting with the Orlando Magic. Hill has missed the last two games with a thumb he sprained in Sunday's win over the New York Knicks. He has done a few drills in the last few days. He said following the loss to the Hornets that he's starting to feel better.
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