Jazz defend draft record

Just one first-round selection dating back to 2000, Kevin O'Connor's first NBA Draft as the Jazz's basketball boss, remains on the roster.

One, 2000's DeShawn Stevenson, was shipped off after nearly four full seasons. Three — 2001's Raul Lopez, 2002's Curtis Borchardt and 2004's Kirk Snyder — were purged in a fell swoop, all part of a five-team 2005 trade that came after none of the trio actually played more than two seasons in Utah. Another from the Class of 2004, Kris Humphries, lasted only two years before being dealt away earlier this month. And one more, 2003's Sasha Pavlovic, exited after one season, left unprotected in an expansion draft.

Only 2005's Deron Williams, O'Connor's signature pick to this point, remains.

It's not exactly the portrait of a franchise building through the draft. O'Connor knows it and seems OK with the reality that his track record of top picks reflects a rather nomadic group.

"Certainly we've had some guys that haven't been as successful as we'd like them to be," he said with Wednesday night's draft, his seventh in charge of the Jazz, fast-approaching. "Sure, put it on us. I'm comfortable with that. But that shouldn't be the story.

"The story, at least I feel, should be the improvement we made, and the fact that at the end of the year, when we had everybody healthy, we were pretty good. And we should be better next year, because every one of those guys should be a better basketball player."

It's true that the Jazz went 41-41 in 2005-06, quite a jump from the 2004-05 season's record of 26-56.

But it's also true that Utah has failed to make the playoffs in each of the three seasons since future hall-of-famers John Stockton and Karl Malone exited — and that none of its draft picks since 2000 have so far been able to reverse that trend.

And that is where this story unfolds.

Four of the Jazz's first-round picks under O'Connor — Stevenson, Pavlovic, Snyder and Humphries — remain in the NBA with other teams.

Only one of the four, though, is much more than a bit player — Stevenson, a full-time starter at shooting guard last season for the Orlando Magic.

Pavlovic was left out of the rotation when Cleveland went to the playoffs. Snyder lost his starting job at New Orleans/Oklahoma City before the season ended. And Humphries heads to Toronto having started just six of his 129 games in Utah.