Draft dropouts may not hurt Jazz's outlook

He is a 6-foot-11 big man from BYU, and he is on the Jazz's draft board. In fact, Rafael Araujo is high on the list.

How high?

Consider what Jazz owner Larry Miller, speaking with KSL-TV's Rod Zundel on KSL radio, had to say Friday night: If Araujo is available when the Jazz pick at No. 14 in Thursday's NBA Draft, Miller said, Utah will take him.

Reality suggests the big Brazilian could be gone by 14. But if he is not, Miller said, the Jazz will tap him — no ifs, ands or buts.

Kevin O'Connor, however, was more cautious.

"If (Emeka) Okafor is on the board at 14,

we'd take him. That's all I can confirm," said O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president for basketball operations. "But Larry's the owner. Whatever he says goes. So if that's the case . . . "

That's just one more twist in a draft that has had its share of turns the past couple days, headlined by a flurry of pullouts by top prospects, including several the Jazz have been eyeing.

Last year, Siberian giant Pavel Podkolzine — a projected top-10 pick at the time — withdrew from draft consideration shortly after his workout in Utah. This year, the list of those withdrawing — released Friday by the league — reads like a who's who of Jazz-flavored alphabet soup.

Tiago Splitter? Splitsville. Peja Samardziski? See ya. Damir Omerhodzic? Check back next year. Marcus Vieira de Souza? Adios. Ryan Gomes? Thanks for visiting.

Those five — two of whom, Brazil's Splitter and Croatian-born Omerhodzic, auditioned Thursday morning in Utah, only to withdraw hours later — are among the 53 underclassmen and underage internationals who removed their names prior to this past Thursday's deadline.

Maybe it's something in the water.

Or maybe it's just because they read what the soup said, and did not like what they saw — chiefly, the likelihood they would not be selected nearly high enough to make them happy when the draft is held this coming Thursday.

"We were not surprised that the kids who dropped out did, because we felt . . . a lot of them would," said Walt Perrin, the Jazz's player personnel director.