Salt City Hoops has the news that the Utah Flash have signed former Boston Celtics and Los Angeles D-Fenders point guard Gabe Pruitt along with former UNLV guard/forward Joe Darger. They cut small forward Lee Cummard to make room.
This move came in part because backup point guard Jason Richards was waived due to injury. Pruitt played 10 games with the D-Fenders this season, where he averaged four assists and 11 points a game on 41 percent shooting. Pruitt also spent some time with the Flash two season ago as a Celtics assignee, averaging the same amount of assists but 18 points a game on much better shooting percentages.
This is a decent move for the Flash in Richards's absence. Orien Greene was a point guard for much of his career, but has played more off the ball this season alongside Dontell Jefferson and so the team needed another guard off the bench. Pruitt's career is in a bit of a slide at the moment, but perhaps playing in a familiar environment and the experience of being cut by the D-Fenders will get him a little more focused.
Joe Darger was drafted by the Flash in the fifth round of this year's D-League draft, but was waived during training camp. He apparently stuck around though and is familiar with the team's system, and is a three point specialist like Cummard. I'm not really sure how much they can expect from a guy who never averaged more than 11 points a game in college, but this team usually (usually) knows what it's doing. Also, this.
As for Cummard, he doesn't shoot a ton of threes but does so very well, making 47 percent of them so far this season. He makes smart decisions with the ball, but doesn't offer much in the way of defense. The Flash trumpeted his acquisition at the start of the season because he played at Brigham Young, and there's certainly a chance he could be back with Utah should another player become injured. The Flash also will have a decision to make whenever Richards comes back whether to carry essentially four guys who can play point guard. Jefferson and Greene are entrenched, while Richards has put up decent per-minute assist numbers. He hasn't done a whole lot offensively, though, so Pruitt has an opportunity to show he can stick with the team. There's also the possibility (or there should be, anyway), that Jefferson gets called up to the NBA. All that is my long-winded way of saying that if Jefferson leaves for greener pastures or the team decides to cut either Pruitt or Darger down the line, there'd be a spot open for Cummard to come back. I suppose another team in need of outside shooting could give him a call as well, but they'd have to be cool with the no defense thing.
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