Utah Jazz: Quest for answers

Another preseason is in the books for the Jazz.

Like so many of the rest, this one ends above .500 — at 4-3, thanks to a 100-89 victory over Portland on Thursday night in which Ronnie Brewer scored a game-high 22 points, Carlos Boozer posted a 16-point, 15-rebound double-double (with five turnovers) and Kyle Korver dropped in another 15 off the bench.

It's the 17th time in 18 years, in fact, that coach Jerry Sloan's club has made it through the exhibition season with a non-losing record.

And with that done, all that stands between now and Wednesday night's 2008-09 NBA regular-season opener against the Denver Nuggets are several long days of waiting.

So just what's been learned in the weeks since training camp opened late last month?

Many questions do remain, but here are five items of interest on which at least some light has been shed:

1. DERON WILLIAMS' VALUE TO THE TEAM

Frankly, it was well-established even before camp and the preseason got under way.

But when starting point guard Deron Williams sprained his left ankle in the Jazz's second-to-last game of the preseason, his value to the franchise — beyond the big-bucks contract extension he signed in the offseason — was amplified to the nth degree.

Intriguing and arguably unsettling questions arose as a result, prompting all sorts of new issues to follow should Williams, who did not play Thursday, not be ready for the opener, including:

• How will backup Ronnie Price handle a starting role?

• Just how quickly can newly acquired veteran reserve point Brevin Knight grow accustomed to running Sloan's offense?

• How frequently, in a pinch, can the Jazz get away with C.J. Miles bringing up the ball?

• Can Andrei Kirilenko be any more effective as a point-forward than he has been in the past?

2. THE NOTION ANDREI KIRILENKO CAN THRIVE AS A SIXTH MAN

With veteran small forward Matt Harpring sidelined by offseason ankle surgery and subsequent infection in the joint, Sloan decided to experiment by starting usual reserve swingman Miles and bringing 2004 NBA All-Star Kirilenko off the bench.

Kirilenko seems to have welcomed the move with genuinely open arms, perhaps because he knows he will be much more involved in the Jazz offense as a second-teamer — playing either small forward, or power forward when matchups permit — than with a starting unit that also includes scorers Williams, Boozer and Mehmet Okur.

Sloan likes the idea of Kirilenko offering energy and veteran experience to his second unit, especially with Harpring's potentially prolonged absence.

Sloan has committed to starting the season this way. How long it lasts may depend in part on just how much ...