Trey Alexander has a résumé that doesn't match his NBA minutes. He was Oklahoma's Gatorade Player of the Year, a preseason All-American at Creighton, and the G League's Rookie of the Year. He has scored 40 points twice in three games at that level. He has also played 33 NBA games in two seasons, nearly all of them at the end of the bench, and gone undrafted, unwanted by Denver, and not tendered by New Orleans. Utah is his third two-way team in three years. He's also family, sort of: his cousin is former Jazz point guard Mike Conley.
A basketball family in Oklahoma City
Alexander was born May 2, 2003, and grew up in Oklahoma City. He's the son of Steve and Pamela Alexander and has one sister, Makayla, per his Creighton bio. The game runs through the family. A 2020 profile in BVM Sports says his grandfather won a state title at John Marshall High School, and his father won two at Midwest City (1998 and 2000) and later played in the NBDL and USBL. Two uncles played college ball: D'Angelo Alexander at Oklahoma and Charlotte, and Xavier Alexander at George Washington and Southern Nazarene. And Mike Conley, the Jazz's point guard from 2019 to 2023, is his cousin.
His nickname is "Tricky," his favorite book is Kobe Bryant's The Mamba Mentality, and his sports hero is Michael Jordan, per Creighton.
Heritage Hall, and a change of plans
At Heritage Hall, a private school in Oklahoma City, he started winning right away. As a freshman in 2018 he scored 27 points, 14 of them in the fourth quarter, to win the Class 4A state title, per Creighton. He played in three state title games and left as the school's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. As a senior he averaged 23.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4.0 assists and was named Oklahoma's Gatorade Player of the Year. ESPN ranked him No. 55 nationally, and he was the top recruit in the state.
The home-state schools wanted him first. In a first-person essay for Creighton, he wrote:
"Growing up in Oklahoma City, it meant everything in the world to me when my first two offers came from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State."
He committed to Auburn in November 2020 instead, then backed out in April 2021. His explanation in the same essay: "I initially committed to Auburn, but after reevaluating my choices, I decided to decommit — and my journey led me here to Creighton." He picked the Bluejays within two weeks, telling Zagsblog the staff offered him playing time as a freshman and an offense that fit his game. He was the last piece of Creighton's 2021 class.
Three years at Creighton, and one point short
He didn't wait long for a role. When point guard Ryan Nembhard got hurt late in his freshman season, Alexander moved into the starting job and averaged 11.6 points in 34.2 minutes over the eight full games without him. His NCAA Tournament debut, against San Diego State, was a statement: a season-high 18 points, including the tying basket in the final 15 seconds of regulation and the go-ahead bucket in overtime, per Creighton.
A year later San Diego State got even. As a sophomore starter, he scored 17 points with eight rebounds against Baylor to put Creighton in the Sweet 16, then 19 against Princeton. The Aztecs beat the Bluejays 57-56 in the Elite Eight, one game short of the program's first Final Four. He wrote about it the next season:
"One point. That's how close we were last March when San Diego State beat us in the Elite Eight at March Madness. We lost by one measly point."
And: "It's as if we had our hearts ripped out of our chests." He went through the 2023 draft process, then withdrew and came back, deciding on the final night, per WOWT. His reason, from his essay: "That loss lit a fire under me."
As a junior he was a preseason third-team All-American for CBS Sports and 247Sports, and he led all Power 6 players in minutes per game (37:15), per Creighton. He averaged 17.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists, made second-team All-Big East, and hit a game-winner with 0.2 seconds left at Villanova. Creighton beat No. 1 UConn for the first time in program history and lost to Tennessee in the Sweet 16. Then he announced on Instagram, per CBS Sports: "I have decided that it is time for me to pursue my lifelong dream of playing in the NBA."
The essay also has a detail we liked. A family at Creighton home games had a young daughter who wore his jersey and ran to hug him after every game, and he wrote that she made his day, not the other way around.
Undrafted, then the best rookie in the G League
Most analysts had him as a likely second-round pick, per CBS. Nobody took him in either round of the 2024 draft. Denver signed him to a two-way contract after he averaged 17.2 points in Summer League, per the Grand Rapids Gold.
He made 24 appearances for the Nuggets, at 4.9 minutes a game, and early in the season he was briefly ahead of Jalen Pickett in the backcourt pecking order, per DNVR's Harrison Wind via Hoops Rumors. His real work came with the Grand Rapids Gold. He averaged 26.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.7 assists in the regular season, shot 42.2% from three, scored a career-high 38 against Greensboro, and became the first Gold player to win G League Rookie of the Year. He also made the All-NBA G League Third Team. Gold general manager Ben Tenzer:
"He is a fantastic player, and an even better person. His work ethic and approach to the game are second to none."
Denver let him go anyway. The Nuggets wanted to use the two-way spot differently, per the Denver Gazette's Vinny Benedetto via Hoops Rumors.
New Orleans, and the 40-point nights
The Pelicans signed him to a two-way deal on July 3, 2025, alongside Hunter Dickinson, per Hoops Rumors. He spent most of the year with the Birmingham Squadron. In March he put together the best week of his career. On March 16 he scored a career-high 42 points against Maine and hit the go-ahead basket with nine seconds left in a 144-142 win, per the Squadron. A few days later he had 40 points and 10 assists against the Windy City Bulls. Over that three-game week he averaged 36.7 points and 10.0 assists and was named G League Player of the Week.
His best NBA minutes came in April. He scored 10 at Boston and a career-high 16 on 7-of-11 shooting in 32 minutes at Minnesota, per his ESPN game log. (He also played 11 minutes against the Jazz in a 156-137 Pelicans win. Let's not talk about it.) He finished with 5.2 points in nine games and made 6 of 12 threes. New Orleans didn't extend a two-way qualifying offer this summer, which made him an unrestricted free agent, per Hoops Rumors.
A stretcher in Las Vegas, then No. 15
Utah moved fast. The Stein Line's Jake Fischer reported the deal on July 4, and the Jazz announced it on July 7. It's a two-way contract worth up to $678,882, and he can be active for up to 50 regular-season games, per Hoops Rumors. He filled Utah's third two-way spot, next to Blake Hinson and Tamar Bates. Our take: for a two-way slot, a 23-year-old with his G League numbers is about as good as the market offers. The Jazz's release counts 66 G League games over two seasons at 24.1 points, 6.2 assists, and 5.3 rebounds.
His Jazz debut summer lasted three games. On July 13, against Chicago in Las Vegas, he collided with the Bulls' Caleb Wilson on a drive late in the fourth quarter, went down clutching his side, and left on a stretcher, per the AP via ESPN. The diagnosis the next day was a left rib contusion. He sat out the next game, per the Deseret News, which also gave the scouting report: mostly a point guard before the NBA, good in the pick-and-roll, able to create his own shot with a variety of moves even without a quick first step.
About the number: he wore 23 at Creighton (his X handle is still @TrickyTrey23), but that belongs to Lauri Markkanen in Utah. Alexander wears 15.
Preseason has been quiet. He went 0-for-5 in 12 minutes in the opener in Boulder, scored 7 points on 2-of-3 shooting in 7:35 in the home rematch with Denver, and went 0-for-4 in seven minutes against the Spurs. That's 7 points on 2-of-12 shooting, all of it late, when (as the Jazz put it after the Denver rematch) both coaches went deeper into their reserves.
Our take: those are garbage-time samples, and we're not reading much into them. What he's shown for two years is that the G League is too easy for him. What he hasn't shown is that he can be efficient against NBA athletes, and that's the gap the next 50 games are supposed to close.
Role
Alexander is a 6-5 guard who played point guard in Birmingham and both guard spots at Creighton. He runs the pick-and-roll, creates his own shot, and can play a long stretch without turning it over (he had 28 turnovers in his last 20 games as a Creighton sophomore, per WOWT). In Utah he's behind Keyonte George, Darryn Peterson, and Isaiah Collier, who has won the backup point guard job for now. That makes him the fourth ballhandler, and the first one Hardy calls when a guard gets hurt.
2026-27 prediction
He spends most of the year with the Salt Lake City Stars, puts up big numbers there (we'd bet on 25 a game), and gets called up when injuries hit the backcourt. He's on his third two-way deal, so a standard contract is the next real step. It's possible here, but only if he makes shots when the NBA minutes come.
Sources: Creighton Athletics, Creighton Stories, BVM Sports, Zagsblog, WOWT, CBS Sports, Denver Nuggets, Grand Rapids Gold, NBA G League, Birmingham Squadron, Birmingham Squadron, ESPN, Hoops Rumors, Utah Jazz, AP via ESPN, Deseret News, and Utah Jazz.