Utah Jazz players watch from the bench during a preseason game with the Portland Trail Blazers at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. Portland won 126-118. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz released the official measurements for their roster, following a new NBA rule requiring players’ actual heights. Most of the roster appears to be shrinking.
The NBA mandated that teams release updated measurements for their players in an effort to raise the “integrity of information” that the league releases to its fans.
The Jazz were one of the last teams in the league to release their official heights.
Donovan Mitchell’s official height came in at 6’1″, which had long been the expectation, even among Jazz players at this year’s media day.
Mitchell, who had previously been listed at 6’3″, took his new official height in stride.
“6’1 (sic) means I just jump higher,“ Mitchell tweeted.
Joe Ingles also shrunk two inches, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Mitchell.
“(Ingles) was never 6’8 (sic) so that’s not new…” Mitchell tweeted.
Of the Jazz 15-man opening night roster, only 7’1″ Rudy Gobert, 6’10” Tony Bradley and 6’8″ Bojan Bogdanovic had listed their true heights before the season began. Gobert’s height makes him the seventh tallest player in the league, tied with former Utes center Jakob Poeltl and Washington Wizards center Anzejs Pasecniks.
Unsurprisingly, no player had previously listed themselves as shorter than their actual heights.
All but two Jazz players were shorter than their previously-listed heights.
Along with Mitchell and Ingles, Royce O’Neale (6’4″), Justin Wright-Foreman (6’0″), and Emmanuel Mudiay (6’3″) were all two inches shorter than their previous heights.
“I’ll be 6’4 (sic) means I play above the rim” O’Neale tweeted.
Mike Conley, Dante Exum, Georges Niang, Miye Oni, Jarrell Brantley, Nigel Williams-Goss, Jeff Green, Ed Davis and Stanton Kidd were all one inch shorter than their heights had been listed.
No Jazz player fell below the six-foot mark, with Conley and Wright-Foreman coming in at six-feet exactly.
There was no word about any changes to uniform sizes.