Teen from Turkey pays visit to Jazz

With all the hullabaloo over whom Utah will pick at No. 6 in Tuesday's NBA Draft, its other three selections — including a second first-rounder, No. 27 overall — seem secondary.

Jazz brass, though, have been busy assessing lower-level prospects.

One in town Sunday arrived with big billing: Ersan Ilyasova, an 18-year-old from Turkey, patterns his game after Jazz star Andrei Kirilenko.

"He can rebound. He can block shots. He's a very long arm," Ilyasova's European agent, Tolga Tugsavul, said of the 6-foot-9 small forward. "He likes Kirilenko. He'd like to be like him — because (Kirilenko) is a team player. . . . He likes not the star but team players."

Jazz brass didn't necessarily see an exact match, but they sure do like this about Ilyasova: The kid has quite a trigger.

"He can really shoot the ball," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said.

Sloan suggested Ilyasova is a better shooter now than Kirilenko was in his rookie season in Utah.

"The fact he's thin and long and very athletic certainly gives you some resemblance," Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said. "But this kid's a very, very good shooter. He doesn't do a lot of the other things Andrei does. And that's not a knock on him — it's just that Andrei is special in that area.

"If you say anything about Andrei, you'd say he does everything better than scoring. . . . Most players from overseas are the other way around," O'Connor added. "Andrei was such a different player than most 'European' players are — because he wasn't a very effective shooter coming in."

If it wasn't for August pin-insertion surgery to repair a stress fracture in his ankle, Ilyasova might be a lottery pick. As it is, he's probably still a first-rounder. Whether he falls to 27 remains to be seen. If he does, though, the Jazz would probably consider Ilyasova there.

Other potential picks at 27 or 34 (the first of their two second-round selections, with the other coming at 51) include North Carolina State's Julius Hodge, Providence's Ryan Gomes, Cincinnati's Jason Maxiell, Gonzaga's Ronny Turiaf, Florida's David Lee, Washington's Nate Robinson, Marquette's Travis Diener, Missouri's Linas Kleiza, Illinois' Luther Head, Italy's Angelo Gigli and high school products C.J. Miles of Texas and Louis Williams of Georgia.