Jazz Workout Four on Tuesday

West, the AP National Player of the Year, realizes the Jazz may have a gap to fill at the power forward. “Depending on what happens in July there may be a big gap here,” said West. “You just want to come in and show them that you can play.” Though after playing four seasons at Xavier, the Jazz are well aware of what the forward strengths are.

In past NBA Drafts, a player of West’s ability may have been a lottery selection, but with the influx of foreign talent West is unsure where he will be drafted “I don’t know” said West. “Right now I’ll probably end up somewhere in the middle.”

Another intriguing prospect the Jazz got a closer look at was Aleksandar Pavlovic, a 6-7 guard. “He’s a good shooter,” said Jazz Vice President of Basketball Operations, Kevin O’Conner. “I think he can shoot the ball, now can he shoot it against NBA players, that’s a different story,” O’Conner continued.

Pavlovic, who did not address the media, spent the 2002-03 season with Buducnost. The 19-year-old guard shot 57% from the field during the season.

Jerome Beasley (6-10,241) from North Dakota is a player who caught the attention of scouts at the Portsmouth pre-draft camp with his play. As a senior, Beasley averaged 26.6ppg and 8.9rpg and was named the Division II Player of the Year. Quinton Ross (6-6, 195) from SMU also attended Thursday’s workout. Over his four-year career at SMU, the guard averaged 14.8ppg.

With three more players scheduled to work out tomorrow, Kevin O’Conner acknowledged the Jazz are narrowing their list of potential draftees. “I think we’re down to five or six, or four or five players,” said O’Conner. Though as the draft approaches the Jazz will rank the top 19 players in the draft and cross them off their list as their pick approaches.

“We don’t put down other team’s needs, we put down the 19 players that we think are draftable at our position,” said O’Conner. “So the day of the draft we don’t have any surprises, you go 1 through 19. If Carmelo Anthony by some act of God wound up at 19 we would take him because he would be second or third on our board.”

However, O’Conner did not rule out the team trading its pick. “We would try and move up if we can,” said O’Conner. “There’s not a whole lot of conversation going on about it but the fortunate thing is, we think it’s a fairly deep draft.”

And with uncertainty after the top three picks in the draft, there are a number of scenarios that could take place after Toronto makes their selection at number four. “That’s where it starts a little bit,” said O’Conner. “We’re not sure what Toronto does but depending on what they do – they start the dominos”