NBA insider Shams Charania reported Saturday that the Utah Jazz are signing guard Hayden Gray to a two-year contract out of the NBA G League’s Maine Celtics, giving the undrafted UC San Diego product his first NBA opportunity to finish the season.
Gray’s path to Utah has been built on steady production at every stop. At UC San Diego last season, he averaged 11.2 points, 3.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 3.1 steals while shooting 41.8% from 3-point range, giving the Jazz a guard with both perimeter discipline and defensive range.
Gray arrives after spending the 2025-26 season with Maine, where he appeared in 48 G League games. The guard averaged 9.9 points, 5.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 27.8 minutes per game while shooting 41.7% from the field and 33.2% from three-point range.
That combination fits a Utah roster that has spent the season evaluating young talent and filling minutes with two-way and 10-day players. The Jazz entered the weekend at 22-59, already out of the playoff race, but still in position to use the final stretch to identify pieces for the future.
Gray’s college climb suggests why Utah is willing to give him a longer look. At Azusa Pacific, he produced back-to-back efficient seasons before transferring to UC San Diego, where his role expanded and his three-point shooting improved each year.
He posted 9.0 points per game in 2023-24 for UC San Diego, then increased that to 11.2 last season while finishing with 3.1 steals per game.
