Bogut appears to be ready for the next level of hoops

He leads: Bogut is far from your ordinary quiet big guy. In fact, he's neither terribly quiet nor ordinary. He drew a technical in the first half when BYU's Austin Ainge shoved Utah's Marc Jackson. Bogut seldom shows high emotion when hammered by opposing players. But don't mess with his teammates.

He learns: Last year Bogut would get flustered when the right opportunities didn't appear. Not anymore. He simply accepts his invitations.

"He plays slow," said Ute coach Ray Giacoletti. "He reads defenses and understands where his help is coming from. He can just do any number of things — including knocking down the 3."

I asked Giacoletti how often he thought he'd get the chance to coach a player like Bogut.

"I, uh, probably . . . " began Giacoletti.

Then he stopped. A couple of seconds passed.

"Once," he said.

"You just try to enjoy it while you have him."

Bogut hasn't said publicly whether he'll enter the NBA Draft this year, but even Giacoletti acts as though it's a foregone conclusion.

Who could blame him? It would be silly to stay around another year to claim territory he has already usurped.

Is he ready for the next level?

"Definitely," said Bogut.

I told Giacoletti of a quote I saw about a dozen years ago from Don Nelson. At the time he was coaching a fairly large player named Victor Alexander at Golden State.

"The game is easy for Victor," said Nelson with clear admiration. "He plays it easy and he plays it well."

That's how it is with Bogut, too.

As long as he stays around here, too easy.

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