The Utah Jazz have waived a former elite lottery prospect who is now striving to just carve out a rotation role on an NBA roster.
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According to a team press release, Utah has cut floor-stretching center Mo Bamba plus guards Pedro Bradshaw and Sean East II, just days prior to the start of Utah’s season. The Jazz will play their first game of 2025-26 at home against the LA Clippers on Wednesday.
Neither Bradshaw nor East has appeared in a single NBA game as of this writing, although Bamba has certainly played his share.
Is Bamba’s NBA Career Over?
The 27-year-old big man, a 7-footer out of the University of Texas at Austin, was selected with the No. 6 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, ahead of future MVP Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (the No. 11 pick), future All-NBA Second Team New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson (No. 33), future All-Defensive Knicks wing Mikal Bridges (No. 10), and quality starters Miles Bridges (No. 12) and Michael Porter Jr. (No. 14, although in fairness he fell in the draft due to injury concerns).
Several solid rotation pieces also emerged in that draft, including Wendell Carter Jr. (No. 7), Collin Sexton (No. 8), Donte DiVincenzo (No. 17), Kevin Huerter (No. 19), Grayson Allen (No. 21), Anfernee Simons (No. 24) and Mitchell Robinson (No. 36).
But Bamba — like No. 2 pick Marvin Bagley III, No. 9 pick Kevin Knox II, and No. 13 pick Jerome Robinson — is hovering around “bust” range at this stage in his career. Robinson is already out of the NBA, while Bagley and Knox are already well into their journeyman eras.
Bamba at least has the profile of a modern center. He’s fairly mobile for his size, and has the first step that allows him to reach the rim with ease — but he can also ostensibly spread the floor, as a career 35.6 percent 3-point marksman.
He spent his first four-and-a-half seasons with the Orlando Magic, but ultimately wore out his welcome midway through the 2022-23 season, when he was shipped out to the Los Angeles Lakers. He failed to meaningfully crack head coach Darvin Ham’s rotation even during the Lakers’ march to the Western Conference Finals that spring. Bamba spent 2023-24 with the Philadelphia 76ers, and then split 2024-25 between the LA Clippers and the New Orleans Pelicans.
Over the course of his NBA career so far, Bamba boasts averages of 6.8 points on .477/.356/.682 shooting splits, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks a night in 16.8 minutes per. It should be noted, however, that he only appeared in four games for New Orleans, averaging just 1.0 triple tries per and making none of them.
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