This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Oklahoma City, Okla. • The Jazz's sluggish start to a new season caused coach Jerry Sloan to hint that he might make a change to the team's starting lineup in the near future.
Sloan briefly mentioned the idea after a Sunday morning shootaround at the Ford Center. But after stating Friday that making an alteration to the Jazz's first unit would be seen as a sign of panic, the fact that Sloan dropped the hint prior to Utah's game against Oklahoma City shows just how ineffective his team's offense was in two recent blowouts.
The Jazz coach made the reference while discussing how he planned to handle Utah's player rotation versus the Thunder.
"Bottom line is, we've got to come with an effort," Sloan said.
C.J. Miles would be the most likely candidate for promotion, replacing Andrei Kirilenko at small forward. However, Miles struggled mightily to start the season, averaging 2.0 points while shooting 12.5 percent from the field during two games.
Kirilenko received the starting nod this year due to a variety of factors, with a primary one being his success as a first-unit player last season. Inserting Miles into the starting lineup, though, would theoretically allow Utah to space the floor better. In addition, Miles would give a first unit featuring Deron Williams, Raja Bell, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson another long-range shooter. Right now, Williams and Bell are the only starters with legitimate 3-point potential — Kirilenko is a career 30.7 percent shooter behind the arc and hit 29.2 percent of his attempts last season.
However, neither Williams nor Bell shot lights out during the first two games. And with Millsap and Jefferson still trying to find their rhythm together and make it work in the paint, Sloan is searching for something to jump-start his team.
Rookies Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Evans are also candidates to enter the starting lineup. However, they would not garner major minutes as first-unit players. Instead, they would initially take the court to cut down on recent foul trouble for Utah's main scorers, following a trend Sloan has employed during past seasons.
Just right
Sloan and Williams acknowledged during recent days that a team dealing with new faces and multiple changes this season might be dealing with too much information, particularly on the offensive end of the floor.
But when Jefferson was asked about the possible info overload, he did not think it was a big deal. To Jefferson, Utah's slow starts have been highlighted by a lack of early-game energy. And while the center said that Utah asks a lot from its players, once an athlete learns the basic level of the team's offense, everything else should fall into place.
"I think it's a lot of information they're throwing at us. But I think it's not enough that we can't handle it," Jefferson said.
Too much?
But Sloan said the opposite prior to tipoff.
The Jazz coach stated again that Jefferson came into training camp behind schedule and overweight. Sloan also acknowledged that the center struggled during his first two games in a new environment.
"He's had a little bit of a problem because he's only been here a short period of time," Sloan said. "We probably gave him too much stuff to start with."
Twitter: tribjazz
Check The Tribune's Jazz Notes blog at sltrib.com/Blogs/jazznotes for exclusive news, interviews, video and analysis.