They gave away hot dogs and drinks, brought in the Jazz Dancers to entertain the Delta Center crowd briefly and hawked season tickets, all while performing this tricky stunt of selling hope and yet not creating unreasonable expectations.
Into this arena of mixed messages stepped first-round pick Ronnie Brewer, a swingman from Arkansas. Or maybe he ran, jumped or flew into the organization, based on all the gushing about his athletic ability.
"He's got size, he's got strength," said Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor. "He gives us something we didn't have. . . . He gives us exactly what we need."
Oh, I'm sorry. Those were recycled quotes from O'Connor two years ago regarding Kirk Snyder, a guard with basically the same skill set who lasted one season with the team as a No. 16 pick, having also left college after his junior season.
So, my review of the Jazz's '06 draft? Mixed, what else?
I'm quite intrigued by the second-round choices: another Illinois point guard (Dee Brown) to join Deron Williams and another Louisiana Tech forward (Paul Millsap), 21 years later. Then again, the Kris Humphries story is a history lesson about the danger of any Karl Malone comparisons on draft night.
The part of Brewer's game that could be interesting, as defined by O'Connor, deals with his ability to guard perimeter shooters. Wow. Could this mean the end of the traditional just-hope-they-miss defensive strategy?
No question, the Jazz needed athletic ability. Brewer will improve that quotient, although the bench-pressing and standing-broad-jumping performances O'Connor was raving about sounded more like NFL draft credentials. Maybe they will translate into NBA-level skills, but who knows?
At least, O'Connor and coach Jerry Sloan were sticking to their recent theme about the vagaries of picking in the middle of the first round, not trying to claim they had made a remarkable, franchise-changing discovery.
"I don't think that anybody at the 14th pick is NBA-ready," O'Connor said.
"You have to remember, he's still a young guy," Sloan said. "The work has to come from the player. We can't make anybody play."
There's considerable evidence of that.
Many of the Delta Center attendees moaned when J.J. Redick went to Orlando three slots ahead of the Jazz. They wanted somebody with a pure shooting stroke, and they got a guy with a style he describes as "unorthodox." They wanted Johnny Miller; they got Jim Furyk.
"It might look funny," Brewer said of his shot, "but it goes in."
Yet there's no way to beautify this pick. Unlike Redick, Brewer is not going to come into this league and suddenly hit a bunch of three-pointers. The best Jazz followers can hope is that he keeps the other guys from making as many of them.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
