"Nobody stepped up and said anything, so I don't know. But . . . I think Jerry (Sloan) has a right to know," added Raja Bell, the Jazz's other co-captain. "If people's hearts aren't in it, then he shouldn't have to play them. He shouldn't have to worry about guys not wanting to be here. If they don't want to be here, then we have to get somebody who (does)."

Bell, though, isn't sure himself if there are those who truly want out.

"I'm hoping that's not the case," he said. "That doesn't say a lot about somebody's character — if they want to bail on us because we're losing."

Sloan, though, seems convinced otherwise.

Because on one hand he sees a team making correctable mistakes.

But on the other he see one with at least some players unwilling to do what it takes to turn wrong into right, beginning with the basics of paying attention to and trusting in their coaches.

That, he suggests, is a clear cue they'd much rather be elsewhere.

"First of all," Sloan said, "they have to get a clear idea of what they want to do. If they don't like it here . . . we can't make them. If there's something going on here that we have no control over, then we'll try to change."

Otherwise . . .

"They have to decide who they're going to listen to," Sloan said. "Their agent? Mom and dads? Or wives? Or, whatever. They have to decide who's going to coach them. That's what it boils down to."

That, or trading them to the most trite of Hollywood locales.

"The grass," Sloan said, "is always greener on the other side."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com