John Tonje has played one game for the Utah Jazz summer league team. He's sat chiefly out due to what's listed as a right ankle sprain. He finally got to play on Monday night, and he had a breakout performance with 16 points, three assists, three rebounds, and went 4-7 from three-point range. He was then listed as questionable for Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards and was downgraded to out hours before tip-off.
The other player held out from the game was Kyle Filipowski, who scored a team-high 35 points alongside Tonje's breakout performance. Filipowski joined Ace Bailey in the fake injury report. The question is, did Tonje get the same treatment? Did the Jazz see enough of Tonje to give him now the star player treatment and bench him for the rest of the summer league?
Held out with the same injury he played through, Tonje may have proved his point to the Utah Jazz
He probably seriously has a bit of an ankle thing going on because they said they wanted to see him early on in the summer league. But after he recovered and played one game, he is now injured again with the same injury? Feels like an Ace Bailey "hip flexor soreness" designation to me.
They did feature him on a podcast case with Filipowski on the official Jazz account. He said the right things, but it seems as if the Jazz saw enough from both Tonje and Filipowski. There is one game left to find out for sure.
In other Jazz news, Steven Crowl still has yet to appear in a game. It's a bad news situation, as he was hoping for a chance to prove himself, and yet, even with all these players downgraded to out, he's still riding the bench. It doesn't bode well for his chance to land on an NBA team next season.
The final Utah Jazz game is on Friday, July 18 at 7pm CST against the Chicago Bulls.