Utah Jazz: Kevin O'Connor gives 'State of the Jazz' address

SALT LAKE CITY — It began as a simple announcement about how the Utah Jazz were going to sign a D-League player because of the wounded team's injury situation.

But after briefing media members on new Jazzman Kyle Weaver, general manager Kevin O'Connor spent another 15 minutes fielding a variety of reporters' questions — with topics ranging from the team's current and future situations, the upcoming draft, Andrei Kirilenko's impending free agency, Al Jefferson avoiding the media to, yep, The Jimmer (well, sort of).

Q: Will this be an audition of sorts for Kyle Weaver or will he be signed simply to fill the injury void?

KOC: More because of the injuries, if you want the honest assessment. What we do is we have a list that we keep of every position in the D-League and every guy that's out there. We call it an emergency list. We evaluate what the emergency is. Marcus Cousin was an emergency when we had all of the big guys out.

(Weaver's) had NBA experience. He's been with a program like Oklahoma City, who does things the right way.

There's two or three reasons you bring somebody up at this time of the year, and I think he fills all three reasons. 1) He's somebody that we want to take a serious look at; 2) He's somebody that we're going to need to probably put in the game; and, 3) What kind of guy is he? And he comes up in good light on all of those.

If you look at him, one of the things you question was his outside shooting. If you look at him statistically on his NBD-League (stats), he's really improved that. He's in his 40s on his 3-point shooting.

Q: How do you feel about the situation the team is in right now?

KOC: It's lousy. We were here when we won 26 games (in 2004-05), and I think we came out of that OK. We had a lot of injuries that year, if I remember. Andrei missed over 40 games and Carlos (Boozer) missed a lot of games and Raja (Bell) missed games at the end of the year ... so we understand what it is and we appreciate it.

As far as the whole thing goes, it's lousy. If they don't make a miracle shot, New Orleans, and (Jordan) Crawford doesn't hit the jump shot (for Washington), then we've won two out of last three and we feel a lot better about ourselves. But you understand that this is part of what you go through. You're teaching the young players you have to do the right things.