Facing a few options at No. 20 in the NBA Draft, the status-quo Jazz forged ahead and took ... you already know it ... Eric Maynor with that pick on Thursday night.

What does that mean exactly?

It means the Jazz saw no way nor reason to move up in the draft to get a superior prospect, although they seemed genuinely disappointed when Tyler Hansbrough was taken earlier by Indiana.

It means the Jazz saw no way nor reason to trade out of the first round, saving themselves in excess of $1 million a year in salary for a player who, according to results in past drafts, may never give them anything in return.

It means the Jazz went for "the best player available," a relatively mature talent, a senior point guard out of Virginia Commonwealth, who can run a team, and score a bit -- although his shooting efficiency needs to improve -- and pass, rather than a big power player who might eventually bring them some aggression in the low post and protection at the defensive end. They took a player who can ... blah, blah-blah, blah-blah.

Has any team ever not liked the player it drafted?

That would be classic: "This guy's a dog. We wanted So-And-So, but the #$%&! Pacers took him a few picks ahead of us."

That is not what the Jazz said about Maynor.

Here's what Kevin O'Connor did say:

"He's a legitimate point guard. He has good size. He sees the floor real well. ... He understands pace of game. He puts the ball in the hands of players where they can succeed."

Is he NBA ready?

"I don't know if he'll be NBA ready," said Jerry Sloan.

"He's closer to playing than a lot of players," O'Connor said, adding that the Jazz will keep three point guards, possibly including Ronnie Price.

What the Jazz should hope for, then, is simply a player who will ... well, play . A player who Sloan will at some juncture deem worthy to play, a player who will be healthy enough and talented enough and resilient enough and determined enough to play.

If Maynor accomplishes that, he will be better off than a lot of past Jazz first-rounders. Anybody remember Morris Almond? Kirk Snyder? Curtis Borchardt? Kris Humphries? Raul Lopez?

Those guys are all on the junk heap of dreams gone bad.

The inclination is to congratulate the NBA for hoodwinking fans of its clubs -- including the Jazz -- into believing that the draft is anything more than a waste of time for all teams not selecting among the top five. There are exceptions, but they are scattered so broadly among the unexceptional, the whole endeavor seems a fraud.

Hope is what makes the thing rock. And luck.

Jazz fans may know tidbits about Maynor. They may know he played and dominated play in a small conference, but also showed well in games against UCLA and Duke.

What they don't know is whether any of that will be worth a dirty dime, not just in the NBA, but in Sloan's structured system.

If the flexible and flux-able free-agent situation facing the club empties out the Jazz's shelves, Maynor will have a better shot at having some impact. If most of the veterans return, and Sloan gives Price the opportunity he should have gotten last season, a concession Sloan reiterated Thursday night, the rook will suffer a similar fate of so many others who have stood in his Nikes. He'll be anchored to the bench for a rainy day -- in 2011. And then, maybe forgotten.

This, though, is not the time to take hope away.

It is just the time to wonder whether anything that went on at this year's draft will make one ounce of a difference in building the club that Jazz fans are so desperate for in the foreseeable seasons ahead.

If you have a guess, any kind of decent guess, at least by past percentages, it's as good as anyone's who did the guessing and the drafting at EnergySolutions on Thursday night.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com .