Royce O’Neale: The Strong Competitor & Fierce Role Player

O’Neale (left) has carved out a role as a defensive specialist, outside shooter and gritty role player. (Jesse D. Garrabrant)

It goes without saying that the Utah Jazz’s two best players are Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell handles a lot of the offensive creativity and production, while Gobert takes care of things on defense with his 7-foot-9 wingspan and elite rim protection.

While its clear the Jazz have found their stars, it’s also important for a team to have role players that do the dirty work. Contending teams usually feature someone that’s able to do all the little things that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet or grab your attention but have a major impact on the success of the team. Players like Dennis Rodman, Andre Iguodala, or Lamar Odom all played key roles on some of the greatest teams of all time, playing alongside more celebrated stars but fulfilled roles that were so critical yet often went unnoticed. For the Utah Jazz, that player is Royce O’Neale.

O’Neale’s Path to the NBA

The path O’Neale followed to reach the NBA was not at all ordinary. He began his collegiate career for the University of Denver but after two seasons transferred to Baylor University in order to be closer his family. After coming off the bench for his first seven games he would go onto start in each of the remaining 64 games he’d play as a Bear. During that time, he became the first player in program history to post 200+ rebounds and 100+ assists in a single season and helped the Bears reach their first ever back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.

After his collegiate experience, O’Neale entered the 2015 NBA draft but was not selected. Despite not being drafted, O’Neale rolled up his sleeves and prepared to do whatever it would take in order to make his NBA dream come true. This included playing for several European clubs such as MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg and Herbalife Gran Canaria in addition to the 2016 Golden State Warriors Summer League Team. While playing in Europe he averaged 8.3 PPG, 4.9 REB, and .438 FG% but it wasn’t his numbers that drew the attention of Utah Jazz General Manager, Dennis Lindsey.

“It all began when Jake (Lindsey, the GM’s son) first went to Baylor during the summer,” Lindsey said in a 2018 interview with KUTV.com. “He kept coming back to, ‘Royce is really tough and really strong, he’s just a tough nasty competitor.’”

With that fierce competitive attitude, O’Neale was able to land himself a spot on the 2017 Utah Jazz Summer League team and shortly thereafter was signed a contract for the 2017-2018 season that included guaranteed money even though the Jazz were already at 15 under contract. That’s how much Lindsey and the club liked what they saw in the Baylor product.

Utah Jazz

Since entering the league O’Neale has averaged 5.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and .445 from the field. Again, those are not numbers that jump off the page, but Royce contributes in so many other ways. He plays hard, and often guards the opposing team’s best players. He has taken the assignments of guarding LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and James Harden, among others. In addition to difficult defensive assignments, O’Neale contributes on offense with his above average three-point percentage of .375 and effective field goal percentage of .546. While he doesn’t take many attempts, they always seem to be timely and come right when the Jazz need a big bucket.

O’Neale’s mother told the Jazz’s sideline reporter Kristen Kenney in 2018 how she encouraged her son to make his mark. “I used to tell Royce, ‘Look, don’t be animated out there on the court. The scoreboard will show who you are and what you’ve done for the game of basketball. Your job is to go out there and execute. And play defense. And we get a win. We will celebrate after we get a win.’”

The NBA Bubble

In the NBA Restart, the Utah Jazz have done everything they could in order to avoid playing the Houston Rockets in the playoffs. This included resting some of their starters, so of the eight games the Jazz have played, O’Neale only played 20+ minutes in four of those. But of those four he has been fantastic as he’s averaged 9.5 points, 10 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, and a plus/minus average of +4.25. No doubt Royce has stepped up in the absence of Bojan Bogdanovic, especially offensively and on the glass as he’s almost averaged a double-double.

The Jazz will now face the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, and they will need O’Neale to step up even more. With the recent departure of Mike Conley from the bubble in response to the birth of his son, the Jazz will now be down two starters. In addition, O’Neale will most likely have the assignment of guarding Michael Porter Jr. whose been a breakout star in the bubble, averaging 22 points on 55% shooting and 42% from deep.

Regardless of what happens to end the unique 2020 NBA season, the Utah Jazz can have confidence in their future with stars such as Gobert and Mitchell who are well complemented with such a special role player like O’Neale.