Almond joy: Rice shooter is popular choice for everyone

The Jazz on Thursday night selected 6-foot-6 Rice University shooting guard Morris Almond at No. 25 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, and when they did there was joy in Utah.

Based on the beaming smiles and heartfelt handshakes after the choice was made, he was high among those they'd been targeting all along.

"It's one of the guys we wanted," Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said. "Certainly there were a lot of people on the board. We thought we addressed a need — and that was somebody to shoot the ball."

"We're excited to get Morris Almond," coach Jerry Sloan added. "He's a guy that looks like (he) can really shoot the basketball, and we feel like that's something our team needs."

Almond — billed along Italian shooting guard Marco Belinelli as one of the top two shooters in the draft — seemed equally pleased by the pick.

"I wasn't really concerned about what number I went as opposed to the team that was the best fit," said Almond, who was named Conference USA Player of the Year after averaging 26.4 points per game on 48.3 percent shooting from the field and 45.6 percent shooting from 3-point range in his senior season at the highly regarded school in Houston.

"I had my fingers crossed, and I don't think things could have worked out any better for me," the 22-year-old Atlanta-area native added. "It was different teams thrown out there, and every team has a different style. But Utah is like hands in a glove. It fit perfect."

The Jazz had been following Almond closely since he declared for the 2006 draft and performed well at the pre-draft camp in Orlando, only to withdraw his name from consideration a short time later.

"I couldn't be happier that things worked out the way they did," he said. "Coming into the process, and having worked out for the number of teams I did — I think 14 different teams — Utah was definitely one that I got a good vibe from.

"It might have been destiny," added Almond, who scored 42 points against the University of Utah during a senior-season game at the Huntsman Center. "That's a word that you can throw around there. They were definitely on my radar, even since I entered the draft ... as kind of an unknown underclassman last year."