Offseason moves pleasing to Jazz

They may not have gotten the long, tall guy they and most other NBA teams have been seeking, but the Utah Jazz seem to think they've addressed most of their other offseason objectives.

Teams usually have high hopes going into training camp — NBA teams open camp activities on Monday — and while nobody's predicting division titles or the like right now for Utah, basketball operations chief Kevin O'Connor, coach Jerry Sloan and team president Denny Haslam said Wednesday they expect — barring more major injuries — to have a better, deeper team than the one that finished 41-41 last season and just missed making the playoffs.

"I said a year ago this (2005-06) team should make the playoffs," said Sloan. "I think this (2006-07) team should make the playoffs. I can't do anything about injuries. This team is qualified and talented enough, so that's how we're going to go about the season, with that in mind."

O'Connor characterized the 2006-07 team that will hold its first practice Tuesday in Boise as young but growing with the work players put in on themselves over the summer, the three draftees and the additions of Derek Fisher and Rafael Araujo via trades.

The Jazz had asked several players to come back bigger or leaner, stronger and with better skills, and they all seem to have complied, said O'Connor at the team's annual media get-together at the Zion's Bank Basketball Center.

"Everything in the offseason that we've looked at doing — from a physical standpoint — they've done," he said. "I think all those goals have been achieved.

"We think they're all going to be a year better — that they haven't reached their peak, but they're heading toward it. And we didn't lose any of the core."

Meanwhile, Fisher gives them experience, shooting and defensive steadiness at two guard positions. "He brings a lot of things to the table that we needed — not that we wanted but that we needed," O'Connor said.

Araujo added to re-signed free agent Jarron Collins gives toughness if not shot-blocking in the middle. "If somebody takes the ball down the lane, we hope they're sitting on their fanny, picking themselves up and going to the free-throw line," said O'Connor.

In draftees Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap, there's added athleticism, though patience may be needed to allow the youngsters to learn the pro game. "Dee Brown, the jury's out a little bit. He's trying to convert himself to becoming a true point guard," O'Connor said. And 2005 draft pick C.J. Miles made "a quantum leap" but still has a ways to go — he's still only 19.