Unlucky Jazz fall to 6

If president Dennis Haslam was doom, owner Larry H. Miller was gloom.

So it seemed Tuesday night, when the two Jazz bosses learned Utah had fallen two spots to No. 6 in a drawing to determine order of selection for the June 28 NBA Draft.

"Well," Haslem, seated next to Miller, said after watching the draft lottery unfold on television from NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, N.J., "we're a couple of disappointed fellas up here."

The Jazz went into the lottery with an 11.9 percent shot (119 chances out of 1,000) at claiming the No. 1 draft position, with only Atlanta (25 percent), New Orleans (17.8 percent) and Charlotte (17.7 percent) having a better chance.

They also own the draft's No. 27 selection, a first-rounder originally belonging to Dallas, and three second-round choices.

Rather than move up from No. 4, though, Utah was leapfrogged by both Milwaukee and Portland - dropping the Jazz to the sixth spot, where they may not be able to find the franchise-making point guard they seem to so desperately seek.

The Bucks used one of their 63 combinations among 1,000 randomly distributed to move from No. 6 to No. 1, and the Trail Blazers used one of their 88 to go from No. 5 to No. 3.

That makes the order of selection among non-playoff lottery teams - barring trades - Milwaukee, Atlanta, Portland, New Orleans, Charlotte, Utah, Toronto, New York, Golden State, the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando, the Los Angeles Clippers, Charlotte again (using a pick previously from Cleveland) and Minnesota.

It makes University of Utah sophomore big man Andrew Bogut a possible No. 2 choice going to the Hawks, should the Bucks opt for University of North Carolina freshman forward Marvin Williams over the consensus national college player of the year.

And it makes Jazz brass one bummed bunch.

"Our high hopes were a little bit dashed," Haslam said. "Milwaukee got lucky. We didn't. Portland got more lucky than it probably deserved, in my view. But that's the way the ping-pong ball bounces."

"Now what we have to hope is that we're . . . perceptive enough and lucky enough to draft somebody that we can look back on, in historical perspective, that will help us," Miller added. "The reality is that that person probably won't do a lot for us this coming year."