Utah Jazz sign RJ Luis to contract after 2025 NBA Draft

The Utah Jazz have signed St. John’s guard RJ Luis to an undrafted free agent contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported. It will be a two-way deal.

After the 2024-25 campaign, Luis entered the transfer portal and could have commanded somewhere in the area of $2 million in NIL dollars, The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported. However, he opted to stay in the 2025 NBA Draft and did not hear his name called.

“There will be no change of heart. RJ’s excited about the future. He’s appreciative of St. John’s, Coach Pitino and the fans. He wants to leave college as Johnnie,” Luis’ father, Reggie, told Goodman in May about his son’s decision to stay in the draft. “We understand the situation, we were offered a lot of money to go back to college. But we have a plan and we’re going to stick with the plan.”

RJ Luis shined for St. John’s this past season, helping the Red Storm to a conference title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. He led the team with 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while shooting 43.9% from the field, which helped earn him Big East Player of the Year honors.

In St. John’s loss to Arkansas in the Round of 32, though, Luis was at the center of the postgame discussion. He sat on the bench for the final 4:56 of the game – an eventual 75-66 Arkansas victory to knock St. John’s out of the tournament. Rick Pitino defended that decision after the game, saying he played 30 minutes, which is “a long time.”

RJ Luis is a Miami native, but played his high school basketball at Lanham (Md.) Mt. Zion Prep, where he was a three-star recruit. He was the No. 219 overall player and No. 5-ranked player in the state of Maryland from the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Luis began his career in the Atlantic 10 Conference at UMass, where he made 27 appearances, including 10 starts in 2022-23. He averaged 11.5 points and 4.6 rebounds before entering the portal and committing to St. John’s, where he became a key contributor. Across 10 starts and 23 games, he scored 10.9 points and pulled down 4.6 rebounds as a sophomore.