The Jazz have moved quickly to patch up their frontcourt, claiming veteran center Tony Bradley off waivers after the Knicks let him go on Thursday, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
Bradley was one of five veterans in New York on Exhibit 9 contracts, all of them battling for a regular-season roster spot. Instead, Utah stepped in and brought back a familiar face.
That matters for Bradley’s contract situation, too. As Bobby Marks of ESPN noted, his non-guaranteed training camp deal will now be converted into a standard non-guaranteed contract.
From there, his pay will rise each day he remains on Utah’s roster through January, when the league-wide guarantee date arrives. If he survives on the roster past that point, the full minimum salary becomes guaranteed.
For Bradley, the move sends him back to where his NBA career started. He spent his first three seasons with the Jazz after being taken 28th overall in the 2017 draft. Now 28, he has appeared in 234 regular-season games across eight seasons in the league, including 41 in 2025/26 for Indiana and Atlanta.
His preseason with New York was brief but steady enough on paper: 5.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per game over three contests this month. His career numbers sit at 4.3 points and 3.8 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game.
Utah needed help in the middle after Jusuf Nurkic was ruled out to start the season with a toe injury, and Bradley fills the 15th and final spot on the club’s standard roster. The Jazz’s other centers are Jaxson Hayes, Mo Bamba and Kyle Filipowski, who returned to action on Friday in his preseason debut after offseason back surgery.
If Bradley stays on through the January guarantee date, he’ll make $3.51MM this season, and Utah will carry a $2.45MM cap hit.
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