The Red Storm’s ten-year draft drought continued, but Luis quickly signed a pro deal after not hearing his named called
St. John’s basketball fans will have to wait at least another year to hear one of their players’ names called in the NBA Draft, however their biggest star from last season quickly found a landing spot.
After going undrafted in this year’s NBA Draft, RJ Luis Jr. signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
St. John’s star RJ Luis Jr. has agreed to a two-way NBA contract with the Utah Jazz, sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 27, 2025
Luis’s exclusion from the draft boards is a part of the Red Storm’s ongoing ten-year draft drought. Sir’Dominic Pointer was the last Red Storm player to be drafted when he was picked with the 53rd pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2015.
The Red Storm’s star was expected to either be selected in the late second round or go undrafted by most mock drafts heading into this week, but ultimately took a two-way deal and has a chance to play his way onto the rebuilding Utah Jazz, who were the sixth-youngest team in the NBA last season.
Coming out of high school as the 232rd-ranked recruit in the class of 2022, according to 247Sports, Luis committed to UMass after a prep year at Mount Zion Prep in Lanham, Maryland. The Miami native was named to the Atlantic-10 All-Freshman team after averaging 11.5 points and 4.6 rebounds for the Minutemen in 2022-23.
Luis then entered the transfer portal and committed to St. John’s in the spring of 2023 as a part of Rick Pitino’s massive roster overhaul, but his first season in Queens did not go smoothly, missing 10 games after dealing with a fractured hand and shin splints in his sophomore year. Making 10 starts in 23 games played, Luis averaged 10.9 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 42.2% from the field and only 20% from three.
After offseason surgery on his shins, Luis broke out in his junior year and became the face of St. John’s meteoric revival, leading the Red Storm to their first Big East tournament crown since 2000 and their first outright Big East regular season title since 1985. He averaged a team-best 18.2 points, along with 7.2 rebounds, 20 assists, and 1.4 steals, while shooting 43.9% from the floor and improving to 33.6% from three. His efforts led him to win the Big East Player of the Year award and earn a consensus spot on the Associated Press’s All-American Second Team.
However, his dream-like junior year ended on a bitter note. Luis scored nine points, shot 3-of-17 from the field, and was benched for the final 4:56 of the second half in a disappointing 75-66 second-round loss to Arkansas to knock St. John’s out of the NCAA tournament.
One week after the Red Storm’s season ended, Luis declared for the NBA draft and entered the transfer portal. Although he was one of the most coveted players in the portal and fielded multi-million dollar NIL offers to stay in college while he went through the pre-draft process, Luis ultimately bet on himself and decided to remain in the draft at the withdrawal deadline on May 28.
Scouts praised the 22-year-old wing’s energetic two-way play, physicality, and aggressive downhill scoring but stressed that he needed to make significant improvements as a shooter to remain in the league for a long time.
Although he missed out on getting drafted, Luis can follow in the footsteps of fellow Red Storm standout Julian Champagnie, who became a rotational player for the San Antonio Spurs, signed a guaranteed contract with the team in 2023, and was one of only 11 players in the NBA to play in 82 regular season games in the 2024-25 season.