O'Connor debunks report

LOS ANGELES — A Florida newspaper's report regarding the Jazz's supposed interest in Orlando Magic shooting guard Gordon Giricek appears to be unfounded.

According to Friday's editions of Florida Today, the Magic have been talking to Chicago regarding a proposed deal that would send Bulls power forward Marcus Fizer to Orlando for Giricek, a restricted free agent in the offseason, and point guard Tyronn Lue.

"Utah also has expressed an interest in Giricek and could be offering point guard Carlos Arroyo or center Jarron Collins," the Florida paper reported.

Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor vehemently denied the suggestion Friday night.

"It's not fair for players' names to be in the paper — and there's absolutely no validity to anything about it," O'Connor said.

O'Connor did, however, say the Jazz still intend to make a deal of some sort before the NBA's Thursday trade deadline.

The Jazz are nearly $7 million under the NBA's team payroll limit and can take on that much in salary in a trade from a club looking to lessen the dollar-for-dollar penalty it faces for being over the league's luxury-tax threshold.

To make doing so worth their while, the Jazz, in turn, would want commodities back that could aid the franchise's long-term rebuilding plans.

"Our goal," said O'Connor, who is in Los Angeles talking trade with other team executives during the NBA All-Star break, "is to attempt to secure a younger player and/or draft picks by using our (salary) cap room."

One possible way to do that would be making a long-rumored trade with Phoenix in which the Suns would send veteran forward Tom Gugliotta, whose lucrative contract expires after this season, to Utah for at least one of Phoenix's multiple first-round picks in the 2004 NBA Draft.

In order to make such a swap work, one or more Jazz players probably would have to go to Phoenix. One possibility remains veteran big man Keon Clark, though that apparently is not the only way such a deal could get done.

O'Connor would not comment on the proposed Suns trade, but did again vow the Jazz would be active in the league's trade market over the days to come.

"We're gonna be aggressive about it," he said. "I just don't know what."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com