Utah Jazz: Change a constant for team

Jerry Sloan readily admits he prefers the same ole, same ole — something that hardly comes as a huge shocker from a man who's been with the same NBA organization as head coach for two decades.

Sloan, who could win his 1,003rd game as the Jazz's coach tonight at home against the Milwaukee Bucks, says he doesn't like to see players traded away.

He likes familiar faces, especially when they're talented and hard-working.

He likes to stick with similar lineups and substitution patterns.

He just likes things to work steadily, reliably, like clockwork — with an extra heavy emphasis on the work part, of course.

"I like for everything to be kind of consistent, have some continuity," he said Tuesday at practice. "But sometimes you can't do it."

Especially not yet this year. It's an odd twist, really. So much stayed the same on the Jazz — with 13 players returning from 2007-08 squad — but so much has changed and almost on a daily basis due to injuries and various other situations that have forced guys out of action.

Change has been the only constant, it seems, for the Jazz to begin the 2008-09 campaign.

To wit, the Jazz used their fourth different starting lineup of the 2 1/2-week-old season against the Suns in Monday's 109-97 victory. With Shaquille O'Neal in town, veteran Jarron Collins replaced rookie Kosta Koufos who replaced second-year big man Kyrylo Fesenko in the big-man pecking order and then replaced Mehmet Okur as the starting center because the former All-Star was visiting his ill father in Turkey during the Jazz's road trip and then tweaked his lower back on the flight home.

Phew. If you needed an extra breath to read that sentence, try coaching it.

And that's just one position Sloan has had to juggle.

He has also had to play a balancing act at point guard between Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight because Deron Williams suffered a left sprained ankle in the preseason and has only played twice. On top of that, he had already replaced Andrei Kirilenko with C.J. Miles as the starting small forward.

Throw in other various injuries — from Kirilenko's sprained right index finger, to Matt Harpring's ailing ankle, to Kyle Korver's injured right wrist, to Knight's strained groin to Fesenko's wounded visa — and the Jazz's roster has been more volatile than the stock market.

So much for continuity.

Sloan, who used to replace John Stockton at about the same time toward the end of the first quarter, has adapted in ways that might come as surprise to some. He's strayed from only using Ronnie Brewer in the odd quarters and Korver in the even periods. On Monday, he kept the hot-shooting Miles in longer than usual. Even bringing Kirilenko off the bench was an unexpected move that has paid off.