Wanted: Team leader

When Deron Williams was introduced in Utah one day after the Jazz made him the No. 3 overall pick in the June 28 NBA Draft, the University of Illinois point guard was asked what he would do if a veteran on the roster wasn't carrying his weight.

Williams suggested he would speak his mind, and say something appropriate to the wayward soul in question.

For most NBA rookies, however, hypothesis and reality can be worlds apart.

Such likely is the case even for a top-three selection coming in with as much clout as will Williams, who reports today for training camp in advance of the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league that opens Friday at Salt Lake Community College.

That in mind, and in light of co-captain Raja Bell's decision earlier this month to orally accept a five-year contract offer from the Phoenix Suns, the question can be raised:

Who will step up to provide leadership for the Jazz in 2005-06?

Inquiring minds from the top on down want to know.

"I remember in the early years, with John (Stockton) and Karl (Malone), in '85 and ('86), questions that kept showing up in the media were, 'Who's the leader on the team? Do they have leadership?' " Jazz owner Larry H. Miller said recently.

"Well," Miller added, "being a leader isn't just a guy who speaks out and talks about stuff. It's the example they set. That's how those guys led. It was by example — how they practice, and how they played."

The cast of characters who could step up now, however, is not a long one.

Miller, though, knows where he will look first, citing a foursome of handsomely compensated players as the franchise's foundation: Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur and Matt Harpring.

"I think if we can have a season without injury, and play pretty much the same starting rotation (as last season)," the Jazz owner said, "probably a couple of those guys would really emerge as the really true leaders on the team — just by how they're performing every night."

But there are no guarantees.

Just one of the four has been put in that position previously while with the Jazz: Harpring was Utah's other co-captain from last season.

Otherwise, it may take a volunteer.

Williams readily raises his hand, and his time indeed could eventually come.