Jazz, Snyder open up about early departure

Thursday's NBA trade deadline has passed, and the Jazz — easily one of the worst-shooting teams in the NBA — were unable to swing a deal for a solid shooter before it did.

It wasn't long ago, though, that Utah figured that need had been addressed.

It was late June in 2004, and the Jazz made University of Nevada shooting guard Kirk Snyder the second of two first-round draft choices. Gordan Giricek and Raja Bell were on the roster at the time, but Snyder, Jazz brass hoped, would be Utah's long-term answer at the 2 spot.

One year later, Snyder was gone.

He was packaged to the New Orleans Hornets as a part of a multi-team, multi-player deal that also rid the Jazz of two other first-rounders who didn't pan out, Curtis Borchardt and Raul Lopez.

That Borchardt and Lopez exited was no great surprise — significant injuries plagued both throughout their short Utah careers, and both are out of the NBA now, playing in Spain.

But Synder? He was penciled into the future.

No biggie, Jazz officials tried selling it at the time — he just wasn't working out. Besides, he was the one who wanted out, requesting to be dealt during the season.

This week, Snyder — and the Jazz — finally shed light on how and why it really unraveled.

In part, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested, things went awry because Snyder was not getting enough minutes for his liking — and, as is often the case with rookies who come through Utah, he didn't seem to understand why.

"The bottom line," Sloan said, "is he probably wasn't playing as much as he'd like to play, and I think we probably frustrated him a little bit because of that.

"Right away, he seemed to be unhappy with what we were doing, the way we were playing. That's not uncommon."

But it goes far beyond that, suggested Snyder, who is now thriving with the Hornets, starting at shooting guard, averaging 8.2 points per game while shooting a whopping 46.3 percent from the field.

"It wasn't a comfortable thing for me, because of things that didn't apply to basketball," Snyder said before the Hornets, who visit the Jazz in a rematch tonight at the Delta Center, lost to Utah on Wednesday in Oklahoma City. "I mean, I didn't understand a whole lot of things.

"I had a couple of guys on the team that got traded that I really was close with, and I didn't understand that."