Cleveland • The last time Dante Exum was in face-to-face contact with Utah Jazz players was in Miami back on Dec. 23.
The day he got traded.
So even though a sprained ankle kept him from playing in Monday night’s Jazz-Cavaliers games at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, the Jazz’s last lottery pick was excited to see some familiar faces. He, fellow Australian Joe Ingles and center Rudy Gobert even got together for a Sunday night dinner — “McDonald’s and red wine,” Ingles deadpanned.
“It was good … just to catch up with them and everything that I missed, just to go through everything and see how they’re doing,” Exum said Monday. “It felt like I’d been away from the team forever — it’s only been two or three months.”
While Exum acknowledged that the initial news of the trade brought with it “a weird feeling,” considering he’d spent the entirety of his career with the Jazz before the deal, he also pretty quickly saw the upside of the move, too.
“I was ready to go out and play,” Exum said. “… Once it happened, I wanted to say my goodbyes, but I was ready for the new opportunity and excited to just get to Cleveland. I didn’t even go back to Salt Lake — that’s the crazy thing. Just the excitement of going to a new place, a new style, new everything, and just getting an opportunity to play, that was the biggest thing.”
Because the rebuilding Cavs are in a very different place from the Jazz, he’s got that opportunity when he’s been healthy. In one of his first games with his new team, on Jan. 5 against the Wolves, he scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-13 shooting, including 4 of 4 from deep.
“That was a great night. … I was playing free, getting into the paint, I was shooting the ball when I was open,” Exum recalled. “It’s just good to play like that sometimes, and not worry about if the shot’s going to go in or miss — it’s just going out there playing and having fun.”
And while his former Jazz teammates were sad to see him go, they’re also glad for the opportunity he’s getting now.
“It’s fun to see him have a new start. I think maybe that was a good thing for him. He’s still a young player, still has a lot of talent,” said Gobert. “He was one of my very good friends on the team, so it was hard to see him leave, but at the same time, I think it’s good for him to have a new start somewhere else and be able to try to show what he can do.”
Meanwhile, everyone expressed great excitement to see him at the game. Well, almost everyone.
“I already saw him, so I’m over it now,” Ingles joked.. “… Yeah, so, good to see him, and I don’t really care about him anymore ’cause he’s not on my team. As of today, he’s the enemy.”
Familiar faces, Part II
The flip side to Exum’s reunion with the Jazz is that Monday’s game also marked Jordan Clarkson’s first game back in Cleveland. Before the Jazz left for the trip, the sixth man spoke of getting the chance to see former Lakers and Cavs teammate Larry Nance again. At Monday morning’s shootaround, he mentioned that he’d been in contact with Kevin Love, but otherwise hadn’t really had time to make the rounds.
No matter, as he joked that Ingles was “my best friend in Cleveland.”
“I was his best friend in Cleveland, now I’m his best friend in Utah; I’m his best friend worldwide,” Ingles chimed in, highjacking the other’s media session, which also entailed sarcastically wondering aloud about the possibility of an in-game video tribute.
Cavs interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff was a little more serious when asked about the guard, however.
“He’s a great dude. We had a lot of fun together. He’s one of those guys that whatever we asked him, he went out and did,” Bickerstaff said. “Obviously, he’s known for his scoring; we asked him to do more defensively, and he did it well. … I’m happy for him — being in a position where he gets an opportunity to be in the playoffs, and to be with a good team down the stretch. He deserves it because he’s a good dude.”
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