Flashback to February 11.

The Utah Jazz were on an eight-game winning streak but took flight to Portland, Oregon to face the potent and division-leading Trail Blazers. Making matters worse, floor general Ricky Rubio had just gone down with an injured hip, prompting Jazz coach Quin Snyder to make an important lineup decision: who should start at the vacant guard spot?

Buried on the bench was Royce O’Neale, a 24-year-old rookie, who hardly played in October and November, cracked the rotation for a bit in January, but still tallied multiple DNPs¹ across his game log up to this point.

While everyone was rightfully raving about Donovan Mitchell, this other Jazz rookie was about to log his first NBA start. Mitchell moved to starting point guard that night, and O’Neale was inserted into the starting lineup to showcase his versatility and ability to just play ball.

Against the Blazers, O’Neale was quietly amazing. He only finished with four points — including a nice dunk —but had a block and a steal, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Oh, and he was a plus-28, the highest on the team.

The next game, versus the mighty San Antonio Spurs, O’Neale got the start again and did enough of the little things to make an impact: eight points, three rebounds. In addition, O’Neale did the defensive thing which was really why he made the Jazz roster in the first place. In 38 tough minutes, O’Neale proved he was an NBA player as helped the Jazz squeak out a two-point win against a playoff seeding rival. He took it to the next level in his next start, as the Jazz took down Phoenix behind a stat sheet-stuffing performance from Rolls Royce: 19 points, a block, two steals, two assists, five rebounds, 3-for-3 from deep, and a plus-9.

The Rolls didn’t want to just stay in the garage anymore.