By trading Podkolzine to Dallas, perhaps it gives the Mavericks enough height in the middle with 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley that they would not try to sign Jazz free agent Greg Ostertag, but O'Connor denied the trade had anything to do with blocking an Ostertag signing, making it more likely he would return to Utah.

O'Connor said he had "tried like heck" much of the day to move up higher than the No. 14 pick, "especially when we started to hear rumors about who was going to go up higher."

One of those was probably BYU's Rafael Araujo. Team owner Larry Miller had said for certain that Utah would have taken him if he was available at No. 14. Araujo was drafted at the No. 8 spot by Toronto.

"You always can use a big guy. He kept working out well, and we expected him to be gone," O'Connor said. "We would have considered him."

Bakersfield (Calif.) prep 7-footer Robert Swift was another the Jazz might have wanted, but he went No. 12 to Seattle.

Utah had also reportedly been eyeing St. Joseph's guard Jameer Nelson for its No. 21 pick. Denver took him at No. 20. O'Connor said of Nelson, "Maybe not draft and trade him," meaning the Jazz might have made room for a third rookie in that case.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com