"I think we could use him, if he just got healthy, you know," Sloan said Tuesday. "But . . . I don't want to put any pressure on him to be out there."

Sloan suggested Ruffin may have suffered a bit of a setback by trying to return prematurely shortly after he initially got hurt.

"I (told him) 'If you want to play, fine . . . but you yourself have to be responsible for what's going on with your body,' " Sloan said.

Even when he was activated, Sloan added, O'Connor made it clear that the club was not trying to rush Ruffin into returning.

"Kevin explained to him that that wasn't our objective — to force him out here on the floor," Sloan said. "Because we weren't going to do that. I won't do it."

No matter how shorthanded on height the Jazz may be.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com