Utah
Luka Samanic’s difficult task of growing as an NBA player
For some young Utah Jazz players, there is a somewhat clear path to improvement and increased opportunity.
Take Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh for example. The two rookies came to the team extremely green and needed time in the G League to gain strength and a more well-rounded feel for the NBA game. Now they are getting minutes with the Jazz. Hendricks is even getting starting minutes and has been tasked with guarding some of the leagueâs best players. Even Sensabaugh, who is averaging just 15 minutes a night over the last six games is getting those minutes consistently. And consistency is the key.
âItâs absolutely necessary in order to grow, really at all,â Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. âBecause thereâs things that you can watch on film, but thereâs nothing like a game. And I think it also settles you down a little bit knowing that one mistake, two mistakes, are not the end of your opportunity. It allows you to to play with a little bit less anxiety. So I think itâs critical to get consistent minutes.â
But for a player like Luka Samanic, the path to improvement and opportunity is not as clear and consistency is much harder to come by. Throughout this season, heâs mostly played spot minutes or gotten on the floor in garbage time and he has more DNPs to his name this season than he does games played.
The 24-year-old, who was the 19th overall pick in 2019, knows that itâs harder for him to get minutes and that his situation, in turn, makes it harder to evaluate any improvement, but it hasnât stopped him from trying to see a bigger picture.
âOne thing Iâve learned throughout this is that youâve got to stay working, really even harder when you donât play which is sometimes hard,â Samanic said. âYou see all these other guys play and then youâve got to come in the next day and work even harder. But if you can channel that and use it as a motivation, it can be a good thing.â
On Monday night, Samanic was given a rare one of those rare opportunities. With Lauri Markkanen sidelined because of a leg injury, Samanic went from playing mop-up minutes, to being thrust into the starting lineup.
Hardy fought for the Jazz to sign Samanic last season, having worked with him with the San Antonio Spurs, the team that drafted Samanic and when the two were reunited, Hardy was pleased to see that Samanic had matured and was approaching things with a completely different mindset.
Samanic previously told the Deseret News that getting waived by the San Antonio Spurs, the team that drafted him, was the best thing that had happened to him, and gave him a deeper appreciation for the work necessary to stay in the NBA. He admitted to feeling slighted by needing to play in the G League as a rookie and was jealous of teammates and disappointed that he wasnât getting the same playing opportunities. And unfortunately, he let that all affect him in a way that directly contributed to him being eventually cut from the team.
âHeâs 180 degrees different in his approach,â Hardy said. âI think Luka would be the first person to tell you he didnât handle it great. His youth sort of showed, and he was a little immature at times. Heâs never been a bad dude. Heâs never been somebody that you didnât want to coach. But I think he didnât deal with adversity as well as he does now.â
The way he deals with his situation now is by paying forward what heâs learned. He often tells Hendricks and Sensabaugh to see their situation thought a positive lens.
âIâve been on them about not making mistakes that I did when I was their age,â Samanic said. âI told him to use their time in the G League as a good thing and itâs showed. I mean, they played well in the G League and they came here and have played well, both of them.â
Thereâs nothing that Samanic has done wrong for him to be lacking in minutes with the Jazz. In fact, Hardy loves how athletic and versatile and strong Samanic is and went as far as to say that heâs probably the strongest screener and roller that the Jazz have on the roster. But there are players ahead of him that the Jazz are trying to get up to speed in order to properly evaluate.
Itâs a dilemma that is not lost on Hardy. He knows that the most important thing for growth in these young players is consistent minutes, but also knows that he canât give that to everyone.
âItâs hard and itâs where, as a coach, you never feel great,â Hardy said. âBecause you develop relationships with everybody in the locker room. You see how hard they work and you just canât play everyone. … Luka is in a really hard spot. … Heâs just trying to stay ready best he can. And yeah, itâs one of the toughest parts of this business, seeing players that are really good basketball players on an NBA roster, and theyâre just not getting a chance.â
All of that said, Samanic has not let his lack of opportunity sway his approach, and Monday night is the perfect example of why itâs more important than ever for him to stay ready.
âItâs the only way to stay professional,â he said. âYouâve got to work because you never know when youâre gonna play. You know, Lauri got bumped in the knee and all of a sudden Iâm starting.â
SANDY, Utah — Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez scored one minute apart late in the second half, and Dayne St. Clair earned his second clean sheet of the season as Inter Miami beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 on Wednesday night.
Soccer legend Lionel Messi played the entire 90(+7) minutes of the game in his Utah debut, but failed to score despite late opportunities.
Miami (5-1-3) is unbeaten in its last eight regular-season games to sit in second in the Eastern Conference standings.
Salt Lake (5-1-2) had a six-game unbeaten run come to an end. RSL had secured multi-goal wins in its previous two games.
De Paul took a short corner from Telasco Segovia and curled a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal in the 82nd minute.
Suárez, who entered in the 75th, volleyed a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Rafael Cabral for his second goal of the season.
The only other meeting between the teams resulted in a 2-0 victory for Miami at home in the 2024 season opener.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Utah transfer Terrence Brown gives UNC a dynamic scoring guard with playmaking upside.
Utah transfer Terrence Brown, one of the top combo guards in the portal, has committed to North Carolina, giving the Tar Heels a high-scoring backcourt addition for next season.
Brown chose UNC over Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Ole Miss and USC. He is ranked the No. 8 combo guard and No. 38 overall transfer by 247Sports.
The 6-foot-3 rising senior averaged 19.9 points, 3.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds for Utah last season while shootingt 45.3% from the field and 32.7% from 3-point range. He earned All-Big 12 honorable mention.
His ability to both score and create for others makes him a natural candidate to replace former Tar Heels combo guard Seth Trimble.
Here is a full breakdown of what Brown brings to the tables.
What to be excited about
For starters, Brown is a high-level scorer. He scored 20 or more points 18 times and 25 or more points nine times last season. North Carolina’s backcourt had a player score 20 or more points only five times last season. Trimble accounted for four of those games, and Bogavac had one in UNC’s regular-season finale against Clemson.
Brown has shown he can be an effective passer as well. He posted a 27.7 assist percentage, an increase of 6.4 points from the previous season. That number rose to 28.1 percent in conference play, eighth-best in the Big 12.
He has shown he can be a capable defender, averaging 1.7 steals per game throughout his career. His career best was 2.2 steals per game in 2024-25 with Fairleigh Dickinson, which led the Northeast Conference.
What to be concerned about
The only concern UNC should have with Brown is his ability to play with players just as good as, and possibly better than, he is. The worry should not be that he may intentionally ballhog. In fact, he may simply try to do too much.
Because he was on two mediocre programs such as FDU and Utah, Brown had free rein to shoot himself out of slumps as he was the No. 1 scorer and the primary ballhandler. The last two seasons, Brown has ranked in the top 15 in usage rate and has averaged 16.4 and 15.4 shots per game. While his offensive rating improved at Utah, going from 96.8 to 108.1, his effective field-goal percentage was still below 50 percent at 48.6.
He will have to learn not to put too much pressure on himself as he plays alongside teammates such as Neoklis Avdalas, Jarin Stevenson and possibly Henri Veesaar, if Veesaar returns to Chapel Hill.
How He Fits at UNC
Brown should fit in just nicely in Chapel Hill and will provide a much-needed boost to its backcourt.
With UNC’s stronger supporting cast and a coach with a championship pedigree in Michael Malone, Brown will be pushed to process the game faster. He will need to read the floor quickly, use his first step to collapse the defense or kick out to shooters, and he could form an intriguing pick-and-roll duo with both Avdalas and Veesaar.
Brown’s athleticism could be a difference-maker at UNC. All he has to do is improve his shot selection and overall efficiency.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
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