Jazz Sign Center Mohamed Wague as Nurkic's Toe Injury Leaves Utah Thin in the Middle

The short version: With starting center Jusuf Nurkic set to miss at least four weeks with a toe injury, the Utah Jazz have added another big man to the preseason roster, announcing the signing of 6-foot-10 center Mohamed Wague. Wague, who went undrafted in June after a senior season at Oklahoma, is a developmental bet — a rim-running, shot-blocking athlete most likely headed for the Salt Lake City Stars — but his arrival underlines how thin Utah's margin is in the middle while Nurkic heals.

The signing

The Jazz announced the signing in a team release, and Hoops Rumors and SLC Dunk both covered the move. Wague's path to this contract is the long way around: born in the Bronx, he started his college career at the junior-college level in Pennsylvania, then worked through West Virginia and Alabama before landing at Oklahoma, where he became a full-time starter as a senior. In that final college season he averaged 6.9 points on 60 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 22.4 minutes a game, and his 55 total blocks ranked fourth in the SEC. He also played for Mali's senior national team at the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket tournament, appearing in five games on a run that ended with a silver medal. The Jazz's own notes emphasize the measurables: 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, an athlete who runs the floor and protects the rim rather than a polished offensive player.

Why now: the Nurkic hole

The timing is not a coincidence. Days before the Wague signing, the Jazz learned they would be without Nurkic for a while: the veteran center sustained a partial plantar plate tear of the second toe in his right foot and will miss at least four weeks, as Prime Video's Chris Haynes reported and theScore and others followed. Nurkic had played 11 minutes in the preseason opener, putting up four points, five rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block, and Jaxson Hayes started in his place in the next outing against Denver. This is not a marginal player for Utah — the Jazz re-signed Nurkic to a two-year, $22 million contract over the summer, a year after acquiring him from Charlotte in June 2025, and last season he averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists across 41 appearances, becoming the first player in franchise history to record three consecutive triple-doubles. Losing that production at the start of the season forces the Jazz to piece together center minutes, and every extra body in camp matters.

What kind of deal this likely is

Neither the team nor the reports disclosed terms, and the structure matters for what happens next. Hoops Rumors' assessment is that Wague almost certainly signed a non-guaranteed contract with Exhibit 10 language — the standard mechanism for exactly this situation. Under that structure, if Wague is waived before the season and then spends at least 60 days with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah's G League affiliate, he becomes eligible for a bonus of up to $91,000 on top of his G League salary. Sports Illustrated's Jazz coverage reached the same conclusion: the signing reads as a training-camp deal designed to route a promising athlete into the Stars' system with a financial nudge to stay, rather than as a claim on a regular-season roster spot. Utah had an opening on its 21-man preseason roster, so no corresponding move was required, and Wague was already with the group — he was listed as a did-not-play, coach's decision, in the Jazz's 119-109 preseason win over San Antonio on October 12.

What Utah is betting on

SLC Dunk made the case for the signing in developmental terms: athletic big men are worth collecting, the center position is one of the more interchangeable spots on an NBA floor, and a rebuilding team should keep taking swings on length and shot-blocking until one of them turns into a real rotation player. Wague fits that profile cleanly. He is not going to score in the post or stretch a defense, and nobody in Utah is pretending otherwise. What he can do — run, jump, block shots, finish at the rim — travels well in a G League season and gives the Jazz a cheap, team-controlled look at a 24-year-old athlete at the position where Nurkic's injury just exposed their depth. If Nurkic's four weeks stretch longer, or if another frontcourt injury lands, the Jazz will be glad they spent October building the next layer of the depth chart rather than scrambling for it in November.

The depth chart he joins

Wague's competition in camp tells its own story about Utah's situation. With Nurkic out, the Jazz's preseason center rotation has leaned on Jaxson Hayes as the starter, with Kyle Filipowski, Mo Bamba and Jonas Aidoo all listed in the middle on the preseason roster. That is a group with size and some experience, but no one who replaces what Nurkic gives Utah as a passer and rebounder — his 4.8 assists a game last season were central to how the Jazz's second units functioned. Wague does not solve that problem, and he is not being asked to. His job in October is simpler: show enough in camp and with the Stars to be the organization's next call if the injury list grows, and give the development staff a 7-foot-4 wingspan to work with while he does it.