"He (Koufos) has worked harder and deserves an opportunity to get thrown out there. 'Fes' has been here for a year, and he's gone through training camp again, but if he's gonna play in this league he has to learn how to work. We can't make him do anything.

"Our coaches work with him, but sometimes he still doesn't work as hard as he's capable of. Consequently, when you don't work hard, you're not in great shape. ... We've tried to make that an important part of what he needs to work on, but, for some reason or another, his conditioning has not gotten better."

Sloan said he wasn't sure whether or not Fesenko would dress Saturday against the Clippers, but he did suggest that for the foreseeable future he was not locked into having one young big guy or the other sitting at the end of his bench.

"Now maybe the next game I'll go a different route," the Jazz coach said. "But this whole business of stepping out and having somebody give you something? You've got to work for it."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com