Jazz brass anticipate flurry of movement

The Jazz started today with three first-round selections in tonight's NBA Draft: Nos. 14, 16 and 21 overall. What Utah will wind up with is anyone's guess, because Jazz brass were talking trade all day Wednesday.

By the time they finally fell asleep on draft night's eve, no deals had been made public. But the Jazz were very seriously considering offers from multiple fronts to swap their pick at 21 for a future first-rounder.

"We're still talking with teams," Walt Perrin, the Jazz's director of player personnel, said Wednesday night.

As for movin' on up, that's easier said than done.

"We're probably not going to move upward," Perrin said.

The Jazz, fearful they will not get the players they like best with their first two picks, have been trying, however.

"Right now," Perrin said, "I don't think we're confident about what's gonna be there at 14 and 16."

Latvian power forward Andris Biedrins? BYU big man Rafael Araujo? Siberian giant Pavel Podkolzine, all 7-5 of him? Seven-foot California high school star Robert Swift? Minnesota power forward Kris Humphries?

Will all be gone by 14?

The Jazz are worried they may be, leaving them to pick from a bunch of high school players (Al Jefferson, J.R. Smith, Josh Smith, Dorell Wright and Sebastian Telfair), a bunch of guards (Sergey Monya, Kirk Snyder, Luke Jackson, Jameer Nelson and Tony Allen) and one very tall but young and raw Puerto Rican, 19-year-old center Peter John Ramos.

Many say Russian shooting guard Monya is one guy the Jazz really do want, but that's as much a guessing game as the one front-office folks are playing now.

"The challenge for our guys," Jazz president Dennis Haslam said, "is to make their best guess as to what will happen ahead of us."

Good luck.

Perrin calls this the most unpredictable draft he has ever worked, which is all the more reason to move up.

It's believed the Jazz have spoken with Toronto, which owns the No. 8 pick, and Seattle, which sits at No. 12. But the Raptors may not be willing to deal with Utah, and the SuperSonics might be asking too much for the Jazz's liking.

Washington (No. 5) and Phoenix (No. 7) reportedly traded their picks away Wednesday night, to Dallas and Chicago, respectively.