It is an experiment for now, a chance to see if the ingredients mesh or if the beaker breaks.

Ultimately, though, the Jazz's decision to open the 2008-09 NBA season with C.J. Miles starting at small forward is a test born largely out of necessity.

Usual backup small forward Matt Harpring has been sidelined with a surgically repaired and subsequently infected ankle, and usual starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko seemed like the most sensible solution to replace Harpring's energy and veteran experience off the bench.

Enter Miles, an athletic swingman who perhaps can be hidden amid the Jazz's other four starters — and who, at age 21, would have made Utah's bench that much more inexperienced had he assumed Harpring's role early in the season.

Why not give it a try?

Good question, agrees Sloan. Besides, the Jazz coach added, it's not as if things are necessarily etched in stone.

"I've just got to see how we can play," Sloan said.

For starters.

Beyond that, though, all Sloan really cares about is who closes.

"I wouldn't be as worried as much about the inexperience to start the game," he said, "as I would be trying to finish the game. That's where problems come in."

So, at least for now ...

DERON WILLIAMS
POINT GUARD
6-3, 207
24 years old
Prior NBA experience: 3 years. Other NBA teams: None. From: University of Illinois. Acquired: First-round draft pick.

UPSIDE: After helping Team USA win Olympic gold at the 2008 Summer Games in China, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft is primarily driven by two things: becoming an NBA All-Star for the first time and, much more importantly, leading the Jazz to their first NBA championship. If that's not an upside, nothing is. He comes off a season in which he did not miss a game and averaged an 18.8-point, 10.5-assist double-double — putting him third among final league leaders in assists and tied for fourth in double-doubles.