Miller wants more from Jazz

Larry H. Miller wants more.

More effort. More victories. More bang for his buck.

Perhaps more than anything, though, the Jazz owner wants more players who give a flip.

So he suggested Monday night, when Miller revealed his frustration with an underachieving team that barely seemed to care while losing by 32 Sunday at Seattle, nearly lost Monday to Orlando despite leading by 20 late in the third quarter, and clearly has the boss as frustrated as he's been in quite some time.

"There's not one of them that endears himself to me right now," Miller said.

If he could make it happen, Miller suggested, the whole gang would be gone: "Right now, it wouldn't hurt me to turn over all 15 of 'em." But with contracts guaranteed and the NBA's in-season trade deadline having passed last month, that can't happen.

That in mind, Miller vented.

First, after the Magic had tied Monday's game at 85 late in the fourth quarter, he animatedly met with Jazz president Dennis Haslam and basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor on the Delta Center floor. Then he questioned players in the locker room after an eventual 90-85 win, wondering what's wrong with a team that often acts as if it could not care less about the playoffs. Finally — after getting no satisfactory response, and after being approached — he ran some of his franchise's dirty laundry through the media.

"We've got a bunch of guys that are scared to shoot when the game's on the line," Miller said.

"I don't think anybody knows what to think about it. I mean, we're doing everything wrong. We're making stupid passes. . . . We don't take care of the ball. We're missing free throws (64 in the Jazz's last five games alone). You can go on and on.

"You just can't do that and win games in this league," he added. "It's too unforgiving."

Miller's dissatisfaction clearly centers on Jazz players.

Asked if he thought longtime coach Jerry Sloan could get the job done, Miller answered, "If he doesn't, we're not going to get it done. It's not going to work for me to take over and coach.

"I mean, we are what we are and we've just gotta . . . it's disappointing, because we know the talent's there. We've seen it. But the problem is we only see it in flashes."

That said, Miller clings to hope for the 29-31 Jazz.