The Jazz coach publicly chided Arroyo for his poor defense. Others in the organization questioned what they perceived to be selfish play on the offensive end for the past several weeks. Sloan even dropped hints, albeit without naming Arroyo, about certain teammates unwilling to pass to certain others.

What really baffles Sloan is how so much changed so dramatically from last season — after which the Jazz were prompted to award Arroyo in the summer with a four-year, $16 million contract — and even this preseason.

Some point to Arroyo's success on the international level, and how a game in which he starred for Puerto Rico in its 2004 Summer Olympics win over the United States stroked a swagger that simply did not play in Sloan's NBA.

Ford: "The Jazz believe (Arroyo's) newfound fame in Puerto Rico and the legions of fans that he had there put enormous pressure on him to put up stats and play a style of basketball that worked for the national team but wasn't in Sloan's game plan."

The Jazz coach himself insists he still isn't sure where it all unraveled.

"That's a good question," said Sloan, who started Arroyo when he first returned from a late-preseason ankle sprain, then eventually moved him to No. 4 on the depth chart of Jazz point guards behind Keith McLeod, Raul Lopez and Howard Eisley.

This season's starting stint for Arroyo lasted just 16 games.

"He just seemed to struggle when he came back after his injury, and never did get back to the form that we thought he was," Sloan said. "We all were struggling, probably. I just felt like when we moved guys in and out to see how we could do.

"Keith (McLeod) went to the forefront to try to help us move forward. And that's just kind of how it ended up."

Until, eventually, the trade was made.

"If they aren't playing hard, I'm at fault. And I have to do something different," said Sloan, whose team had lost 11 of its previous 14 heading into Saturday night's game against Memphis. "And I didn't think we were getting the necessary results, or trying as I thought we should.

"So, I never felt like it was anything other than basketball. It was a basketball decision. It wasn't a personal thing that I had against him. If it would have been personal, I could have had that (a trade) a long time ago."

If the communication problem was not the primary factor in the affair, though, it did certainly appear to play a part.

"I've always said, 'You can be upset with me, and I understand that. But are you going to crawl up in a corner, or are you going to come out fighting or do what you have to do to try to get better?' " Sloan said. "That's all I know."

Arroyo and Sloan did publicly make amends after that Dec. 14th incident, yet Arroyo still stewed and Sloan went on about his business for weeks afterward.