No longer with Utah Jazz, former KU center Udoka Azubuike has NBA Summer League deal

Former University of Kansas center Udoka Azubuike will have a chance to showcase his skills — and potentially earn a new contract — in the NBA Summer League.

Azubuike will join the Boston Celtics’ 2023 summer league roster, The Athletic’s Jared Weiss reported on Thursday. Azubuike was drafted No. 27 overall by the Utah Jazz in the 2020 NBA Draft. He spent three seasons in Utah, averaging 3.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in nine minutes per game.

Last season, the former KU star averaged 3.5 points and 2.4 rebounds while playing 10 minutes per game. He appeared in just 36 contests. The Jazz declined his fourth-year team option before the start of last season.

Azubuike played only 68 games in three seasons, struggling to stay on the court due to injury issues.

“It’s also important to say that some freak injuries and unfortunate timing are not reasons to not like a player, to an extent,” wrote Sarah Todd of the Deseret News in recapping Azubuike’s 2022-23 season. “(Azubuike) had one injury after another, and then when he was healthy he was either behind the likes of Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside or Walker Kessler and Kelly Olynyk.

“But, even when Azubuike was able to get on the court, he was all too often either not conditioned correctly or didn’t know where he was supposed to be. After three years, you would want a player to not have to be directed around by teammates and be out of position so often.”

While Azubuike’s NBA career has yet to yield promising results, his time at Kansas was another story.

Azubuike played four seasons at KU, averaging 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds. He was the starting center on KU’s 2020 team that was projected as the top-overall seed in the NCAA Tournament before the event was canceled due to the pandemic.

He was named a second-team All-American, Big 12 Player of the Year and NABC Defensive Player of the Year following the 2020 season.