Utah Jazz notebook: Team signs Othyus Jeffers from the D-League

SALT LAKE CITY — And the winner of your Iowa State Lottery for Thursday, March 4, is ... Othyus Jeffers.

With the Jazz required by NBA rule to add a 13th player by today, a move made necessary by the trade of starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer to Memphis two weeks ago, the team on Wednesday announced it will add a swingman from the NBA Development League's Iowa Energy to its already crowded collection of wings.

Jeffers — who won't be with the Jazz for tonight's game in Phoenix — was averaging 14.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists while shooting 51 percent from the field for Iowa this season.

The call-up is worth about $24,000 to Jeffers, who'll sign a 10-day contract if he passes a physical exam today.

The acquisition, though, isn't necessarily for the remainder of the season — and may simply be an evaluation for the future as well as a bridge for the Jazz to carry a 13th until later this month and perhaps sign a currently injured player with considerable NBA experience.

Guard Larry Hughes, sidelined by a fractured finger, is one such candidate.

But the one Utah may be most interested in is ex-Jazz big man Mikki Moore, who started the season with Golden State but — since released — is recovering from Dec. 18 surgery to remove bone spurs in his right heel.

Moore — respected by Utah's coaches after a brief stint with the club — has played for 10 NBA teams over 12 seasons, including 28 games with the Jazz in 2004.

He isn't expected to be ready to play again until sometime later this month, but when he is, it's possible the Jazz would sign him then and return Jeffers to the D-League.

Jeffers — his first name is pronounced oh-THEE-us — is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound Chicago native.

The 24-year-old ended his collegiate career at Robert Morris University Illinois, an NAIA school in Chicago unaffiliated with Pittsburgh's more widely known Robert Morris University, after earlier stints at Illinois-Chicago and Los Angeles Southwest College.

General manager Kevin O'Connor said the Jazz were attracted to the former Sporting News NAIA Player of the Year by "first, his team wins" — the Energy are 30-9 — and because "he's a competitor."

"He's a good defender," O'Connor said of Jeffers, a slash-type who'll wear No. 6 in Utah.