O'Connor working deal to keep Bobcats away

The Jazz will not give up their efforts to try to dissuade Charlotte from taking swingman Sasha Pavlovic in tonight's NBA Expansion Draft, basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said Monday.

O'Connor said he spoke with the Bobcats on Friday, and planned to do so again Monday, to "see if there is anything we can do to prevent them from taking one of our players."

The Jazz have exposed 2003 first-round draft choice Pavlovic and 2002 first-rounder Curtis Borchardt. They can't lose more than one but seem fearful they might lose Pavlovic.

Memphis is one of at least two other teams afraid of what might happen tonight, O'Connor suggested.

The Grizzlies reportedly have exposed Troy Bell, Ryan Humphrey, Dahntay Jones, Bo Outlaw, Theron Smith, Jake Tsakalidis and Lorenzen Wright. It's likely Memphis will reluctantly lose one from among that group, perhaps guard Bell, a first-rounder last year.

Other clubs are practically begging Charlotte to take on players with so-called bad contracts, like those belonging to Elden Campbell of Detroit and Jhadi White of Phoenix.

"Most of the other teams," O'Connor said, "have contracts out there that they're (proposing to Charlotte), 'If you take this contract, we'll do this.' "

Teams are allowed to make deals with Charlotte to get the Bobcats to either take or not take an unprotected player. The Jazz also have talked with Charlotte about having the Bobcats pick a player for them, which is permitted.

"On the whole, most of (the expansion draft) is players that probably don't fit into what we're trying to do," O'Connor said. "But there are some that we would consider.

"We'll continue to talk to them," he added, "and see what we can do."

Tonight's expansion draft will be televised on NBA TV (available on satellite) at 5 p.m. (mountain time).

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