Simone Fontecchio Has A Clear Path To Minutes With The Utah Jazz

When their preseason tips off later today, the Utah Jazz will be able to give a debut to one of their summer signings, Simone Fontecchio. Indeed, it will be the NBA debut for the 26-year-old Italian swingman, who joined American shores for the first time this offseason after a European career that, until 2020, had taken place entirely in his homeland.

Over the course of the last 15 years, Italian basketball has been in something of a quagmire. Beginning with the global financial crisis that exposed the shortcomings of having so many teams reliant on benefactor owners, the domestic league has struggled with some high-profile bankruptcies (including Fortitudo Bologna, Montepaschi Siena and Benetton Treviso), falling revenues, and, as a result, a decline in the quality of players. Less talented imports and underinvestment in developing internally has seen a choking effect on the country’s pipeline of young talent, which in turn has affected the quality of the national team as well.

There are, however, strong signs of recovery. Virtus Bologna will play in the EuroLeague this season, joining Olimpia Milano to give Italy its first multi-berth EL season since 2015-16, and after failing to quality for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the Gli Azzurri finished 5th at the Tokyo Games. At the head of that Olympic run was Fontecchio, who has undergone a mid-20s resurgence in what was previously a career of unfulfilled promise.

Fontecchio went undrafted back in 2017, because, at the time, there was not much to draft. He had once been a highly touted prospect, appearing in every significant youth tournament and declaring early for the 2015 Draft before withdrawing, yet although he had been a regular Serie A for Virtus between 2014 and 2016, his move to Milano that summer backfired.

In his first season for Italy’s biggest club, he could not get a game. Fontecchio appeared in only 117 EuroLeague minutes all year, and somehow, that number only went backwards from there, dropping down to 2 the following season, and a mere 16 in 2018/19. He featured more regularly in Italian league play, but even then served only as a catch-and-shoot player for Milano, and by the end of his third season, he was barely a factor at all.

With his career stalled, Fontecchio needed a second wind. He thus left Milan and went to Bresica, who played only in Italian domestic competitions; there, he re-established himself as a three-level scorer, averaging exactly 11.0 points in 27 minutes per game, doing so on an efficient .583% true shooting percentage. This led to a return to the EuroLeague, first with German side ALBA Berlin, and then moving to Spain to play for Baskonia, where last season he again averaged exactly 11.0 points a night. Where once he could barely get a minute in the best competition outside of the NBA, he became an every-game starter and key offensive piece.

If the basic counting stats do not overwhelm with their volume, view them instead within the context of his role. Fontecchio, a 6’7 swingman, is not the type to be handling the ball up top. Rather, he is instead a spot-picker, a shooter off both the catch and off movement, from both outside the three-point line and in the older school mid-range areas. His shot chart is a diet of catch-and-shoots from outside the line on the wings and corners, and a plethora of turnarounds from about 18 feet. And it all comes very smoothly and consistently.

With his size and a fairly quick high release, Fontecchio can always get jumpers away, meaning the just-rise-up approach is always on hand to bail out sticky offenses. He is a very good shooter, too, having shot greater than 40% from the three-point line in each of his last three seasons across all competitions. Given the far greater floor spacing in the NBA game – and the heightened focus on it – Fontecchio could see his outside shooting volume increase if given the freedom to try, and the adjustment in distance from FIBA three to NBA three is not as hard as it once was.

Elsewhere, while he is not one to much handle the ball in traffic, Fontecchio does have some burst at the rim when he gets there, and while he can struggle one on one defensively, he nevertheless competes and has size. Fontecchio’s decisions are generally good, and when he is hot, he has been unguardable at the European level. Use him like Klay Thompson and enjoy those nights when he somewhat plays like him.

To bring Fontecchio over cost the Jazz $6.5 million over two seasons, and Fontcchio will count against this year’s cap for only $3,205,128. That represents less than a third of the full value of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, for one of the best shooters outside of the NBA. The upside to this deal is apparent.

It is true that the Jazz team he is now on does not much resemble the one he may have thought he was joining. The trades of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and the myriad parts involved has seen the Jazz’s roster be almost entirely reformed, with up to 17 players having good arguments for meriting rotation minutes. It may well be the case that Fontecchio does not play much early on, or even at all.

Nevertheless, he plays the position on the Jazz’s depth chart with no incumbent starter, and the path to minutes for him is clear. Make shots, and you’re in. This is not the same Simone Fontecchio whose career slowed to a crawl when he first levelled up to EuroLeague level; this new Fontecchio is confident, strong and decisive. If he can quickly adjust to the greater speed of the NBA game, Utah may have found a steal.