Utah Jazz: Jazz eye late pick in down draft

No matter that he was the Jazz's first-round draft pick in 2007, Morris Almond played in only nine games his rookie season for a total of 39 minutes, though he did set single-game scoring records in the NBA Development League.

Kosta Koufos fared slightly better as the Jazz's 2008 first-round pick, playing in 48 games on an injury-ravaged team. But Koufos failed to see action the final two months of the season, last playing in a Feb. 17 game against Memphis.

With that recent history as a guide, expectations will be accordingly low with the Jazz holding the No. 20 pick in tonight's NBA Draft. Of the last 10 picks at No. 20, only Orlando's Jameer Nelson has enjoyed a career of note.

"If you asked me to classify

the draft, it's a smaller draft," Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said Wednesday, citing the lack of big men expected to be top-10 picks and the dozen point guards who could be selected in the first round.

"I would say that there's a lot of players that can play in the NBA," O'Connor added. "What success level they have is what everyone questions."

The Jazz also own the No. 50 pick in the second round. They drafted Almond and Koufos with the Nos. 25 and 23 picks the last two years.

Although this year's draft class is not well regarded beyond Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, the expected No. 1 overall pick of the Los Angeles Clippers, the Jazz are not as sour on it as some of their counterparts around the league.

"We know we have to pick somebody, so, yeah, I think we do warm up to it more," Jazz vice president of player personnel Walt Perrin said. "We look at more and more guys and we decide if they can help us and then we get a little bit more comfortable with players."

The Jazz do acknowledge how difficult it has been to organize their draft board into tiers of players. While Griffin is alone in the first tier, seven or eight players are in the second tier and 15 to 20 are in the third tier, O'Connor said.

Among the players the Jazz are expected to consider are North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough, Pittsburgh forwards Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, Wake Forest guard Jeff Teague and forward James Johnson, and Virginia Commonwealth guard Eric Maynor.

Florida State guard Toney Douglas is another possibility, as are UCLA guard Darren Collison and North Carolina guard Ty Lawson. Neither Collison nor Lawson would come to Utah for a workout, but the Jazz would not have issues drafting either one, O'Connor said.

As long as the Jazz have been fans of Hansbrough, who led North Carolina to the NCAA championship and is the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time leading scorer, the possibility exists that he will be chosen before the 20th pick.

Hansbrough's workout Sunday with Atlanta was so impressive that Hawks assistant coach Larry Drew described it to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as being "off the Richter scale."

"You just don't see many players capable of playing with that type of energy and effort and can sustain it through a game or even a workout," Drew continued. "He plays at a totally different level than some of these young guys out here."

The Jazz, meanwhile, would consider drafting a point guard, even with Deron Williams entrenched at the position. They have searched for a consistent backup the last two seasons between Jason Hart, Brevin Knight and Ronnie Price.

"Deron didn't play the first 15 games [last season] and we had to have somebody hold us in, which Ronnie and Brevin did," O'Connor said.

"I think it's a position that needs to be covered. You're playing a back-to-back and maybe that's a 15-minute night for somebody or 16-minute night."

The Jazz will carry three point guards on the roster next season, O'Connor added, but they will not have two rookies backing up Williams.

O'Connor also noted the increasing trend of teams pairing small guards in the same backcourt, another way the Jazz could find playing time should they draft a point guard.

Despite the uncertainty of the draft, the Jazz would not consider selling the pick, even with their luxury-tax concerns. "I think we would want to add a player rather than do that," O'Connor said, adding that CEO Greg Miller was in support of the decision.

The pending opt-out decisions from Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver will not affect the draft. Asked about selecting a power forward, O'Connor noted that the Jazz might not have one under contract with Boozer and Paul Millsap potentially both free agents.

Whether the Jazz can find a contributor for next season remains an "unknown," Perrin said, and likely dependent on how many players return from a team that could have as many as eight free agents by this time next week.

"If we lose those [eight], yeah, the guy we draft at 20 may have a better shot of playing," Perrin said. "If we bring everybody back, depending on the position we draft, he may not play much. I don't know. It's tough to say right now."

rsiler@sltrib.com