Korver's impact unsure for some

With swingman Kyle Korver's arrival, more than one Jazz wing player must be wondering how his playing time will be impacted.

If Monday's win over Portland is any indication, Andrei Kirilenko should be OK. Matt Harpring, too. But Ronnie Brewer may be concerned, and C.J. Miles, too.

And that's not to mention rookie shooting guard Morris Almond, whose assignment to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash could wind up being even longer than originally planned.

Korver — acquired last Saturday in a trade with Philadelphia, which received sporadically used shooting guard Gordan Giricek and a lottery-protected future first-round draft choice — logged 18 minutes off the bench in his debut.

Korver also played the entire fourth quarter, finishing at shooting guard next to starting small forward Kirilenko while starting shooting guard Brewer watched from the bench.

Kirilenko wound up playing 31 minutes, just three off his season average. And backup small forward Harpring went 17 minutes, one more than usual.

Brewer and Miles, meanwhile, took the biggest hits.

Brewer played just 18 minutes, 12 off his season average. And backup shooting guard Miles, who had been averaging 24 minutes in the five games since Giricek first got banished from the team following a words war with coach Jerry Sloan, played just 12.

The implication: The Jazz should now have some bona fide battles for minutes among its swingmen, and Sloan, for one, loves it.

"There should be competition," he said.

"I think it makes your team better if guys compete for playing time — if they handle it the right way," added Sloan, whose Jazz play host tonight to Giricek and Korver's old 76ers club. "Sometimes you say, 'I want all the playing time' and then when you get out there and nothing happens. (But) it's hard to get that second chance if somebody else is doing the job."

Or, as Sloan put it more succinctly: "It's kind of like — who was it? — Wally Pipp."

HMMM: In his Sixers debut Monday, Giricek scored six points and was 2-of-2 from the free-throw line in 14 minutes. In his 22 Jazz games, when he was averaging 13 minutes per game, Giricek — who is capable of slashing to the basket but hadn't been doing it a whole lot — attempted exactly one free throw.

HE SAID IT: Korver, on being constantly compared to look-alike actor Ashton Kutcher: "I'm looking forward to someone getting some new material. I've been punked like a million times."