People around here were excited when the Jazz drafted Dante Exum with the fifth overall pick. That was back in 2014, more than five years ago, when Exum, a kind of mysterious youngster out of Australia, had all his promise in front of him.
But now the intrigue of that mystery has faded away, that promise has not been kept.
And the Jazz traded him on Monday for Cleveland’s Jordan Clarkson, a player who is short on mystery and long on scoring. He went for 33 points just the other night. The Jazz bench has been lurching, unable to keep leads the frontline players have built for it, unable to keep their heads above water, all as Exum sat on the bench and watched, occasionally cheering the guys on.