MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jay Huff’s multi-day road trip was becoming customary. Denver to Virginia was nothing. He and his wife, Lindsay, once drove all the way home from southern California after a season with the South Bay Lakers ended.
Now it was time to hit the road again and wait for the next opportunity. Huff’s two-way contract with the Nuggets was over after 20 games at the NBA level — all garbage time — and 20 points per game for Denver’s G League affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich. As is typical, he met with Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth after the season, and both sides agreed to move on.
“It kind of seemed like when we were there, it’s not like it was bad, but it seemed like we needed to go elsewhere,” Huff told The Denver Post this week. “They said that I’d done well, but they also thought that there was probably opportunity elsewhere as well. So it wasn’t like it was bitterness or anything like that.”
As Huff moved out of Denver and began the long drive, he had no idea what the next year would hold for him — “It was definitely like a ‘maybe we’ll go overseas, maybe we won’t’ type of thing,” he said — but he certainly couldn’t have drawn it up much better than how it has turned out so far.
The 27-year-old G League journeyman has found prosperity with one of Denver’s Western Conference foes. After starting the season on another two-way deal in Memphis, Huff took full advantage of frontcourt uncertainty and was upgraded to a standard NBA contract in late October, at four years and $10.1 million. He’s averaging 9.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 14 minutes off the bench. The 7-foot-1 center is also shooting the three at a 42.6% clip.
“Give Jay a lot of credit,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “He’s going out there, he’s shooting the 3-ball really well. He’s finishing around the paint, around the basket. Blocking shots. And just looks really under control and poised out there. … Any time you have a player and he goes somewhere else, you always root for them. Jay was really good for us with the Gold as well as with us up in Denver. So I’m happy for him.”
Those numbers might sting a little back in Denver, where the center rotation behind Nikola Jokic has been messy. Newcomer Dario Saric has shown signs of improvement recently, but that’s after he was removed from the rotation five games into the season. Zeke Nnaji’s minutes spiraled out of control during the team’s last road trip, which included two games in Memphis. Malone has tried experimenting with small-ball lineups using Peyton Watson or Vlatko Cancar at the five, only for Cancar to land awkwardly after a dunk Tuesday and struggle to put weight on his left knee — the same one that caused him to miss last season with a torn ACL.
Needless to say, stability behind Jokic has been as tenuous as usual.
But Huff harbors no hard feelings toward the front office or coaching staff, he says. He’s not out to prove the Nuggets wrong. He has been around the G League long enough to recognize that doors don’t often swing open like they have for him in Memphis.
“I feel like I’ve improved,” Huff told The Post. “So whether I should or shouldn’t have played last year, I can’t get bogged down with that either. Obviously, I wish I could have. But we were a really good team last year, too. It is what it is. And you know, for me, I try not to think about it that way. I think we were in Denver for a reason. … I think I improved a lot during the development workouts. I also think my wife made some really good friendships and she was able to do that while there. I think God puts us different places for different reasons. Not always basketball. We figured it out.”
Huff went undrafted in 2021 after a four-year college career at Virginia that included an NCAA championship in 2019. He initially signed with the Wizards but was waived less than a month later. He joined the Lakers on a two-way, finished a season in South Bay and started the next one there, too. Eventually, he found his way back to Washington and won Defensive Player of the Year in the G League with the Capital City Go-Go. He played on Houston’s Summer League team. He spent a year with the Nuggets and Grand Rapids Gold. He played on Orlando’s Summer League team.
It’s as exhausting as it sounds.
Enough that Huff almost went a different direction this year. He was in talks with the Euro League club Olimpia Milano. His free agency decision was between that and Memphis.
“We were pretty close (with Olimpia Milano),” he said. “We talked to them. Really liked them. Still do. Their head coach is awesome. Ettore Messina, he’s the man. So we were close. Living in Milan would have been fun. And I know plenty of guys that have gone overseas that should be in the NBA right now. It’s all about fit and opportunity.”
A video coordinator from Huff’s time at UVA, Johnny Carpenter, got a coaching job with the Grizzlies. They’ve worked out together in past summers. Carpenter told Huff he thought Memphis would be a good spot for the big man.
“We figured we would stick it out one more year on a two-way,” Huff said. “See what happens. See if we could make something of it. This seemed like the right fit.”
The hunch was correct. And now Huff seems positioned to maintain a steady diet of minutes with the Grizzlies’ 7-foot-4 lottery pick, Zach Edey, sidelined and considered week-to-week due to an injury.
Huff’s blocked shots — “Huff stuffs” — elicit some of the loudest cheers from the crowds at FedExForum. His ascent has been one of the feel-good stories in the NBA early this season. His hope is that other deserving G League players with whom he’s crossed paths can be rewarded for their patience eventually, too. “There are guys I wish it would happen for,” he said. “And it may or may not.”
In the meantime, Huff will enjoy the increased job security. And the increased free time he hopes to have next summer.
“The main thing is just more of a feeling of stability, even though trades can still happen and all that,” he said. “It’s not like I’d be out of a job if they were like, ‘Eh, we’re gonna move on tomorrow, so pack your stuff up.’ Which, on a two-way, that is what it is. That’s the life you sign up for. So it is nice to have that. But other than that, life’s still pretty similar. Still hanging out with my wife in the evenings. And kind of doing the same old, same old. We’re hoping that this offseason, we can take a nice trip and do less of the Summer League thing. … We’ve talked a lot about actually going to Italy, which would be fun.”
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