Williams, Felton to work out for Jazz

Now the Jazz workouts get interesting with just five days to go until Tuesday's NBA Draft.

Deron Williams of Illinois and Raymond Felton of North Carolina, two of the top three prospects at point guard, where Utah needs the most help, headline this morning's group of five scheduled to show their wares for Jazz brass at the Zion's Bank Basketball Center.

And Jazz senior VP of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor said Saturday's workouts will also have some name appeal.

"We always schedule a little bit late," O'Connor said of Utah's inviting top players to come in with little time left. "We like to have them back towards the end.

"We've always done that with kind of the guys we've, quote, targeted, unquote, and on Saturday, we'll have some of the other guys come in that we've targeted."

The announcement Wednesday that Williams and Felton are scheduled for today sent a buzz through the Jazz practice facility, and O'Connor noted that Maryland's John Gilchrist, another of today's five, was 2003-04 MVP of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament that included Chris Paul, this draft's other highly rated point guard.

Also in today are Houston's Andre Owens and Atlanta-area prep Louis Williams, the 2005 Georgia "Mr. Basketball" who has already worked out for Portland, Denver, Phoenix, Memphis, Miami, Toronto, Sacramento and twice for Detroit.

All are guards.

Reporters were pleading Wednesday to be allowed to watch today's matchup between Deron Williams and Felton, though Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said he didn't know how much of a workout or a one-on-one situation they'd get into and O'Connor said, "To me, it doesn't make a difference. I've got a tape up there that shows them in the national championship game against each other. That's a lot more important than playing for 10 minutes out here in a one-on-one thing. When the lights went on, both of those guys excelled pretty good in the competition."

Many mock drafts anticipate the Jazz being able to take Felton with their No. 6 pick, though it is rumored they're trying to move up to at least fourth to get Deron Williams.

Now it sounds like they'll have competition if they try to move. Florida Today reported Wednesday that Orlando is trying to move up from No. 11 to get the slimmed-down, 6-foot-4 Williams, who worked out for the Magic Saturday and whose play-making ability was compared by Magic player personnel director Dave Twardzik to that of all-star Jason Kidd.

New Orleans, with the No. 4 pick Tuesday, also is thought to like Williams.