Almond, Fesenko join the Flash

TORONTO — The Jazz traveled to Canada on Saturday without shooting guard Morris Almond and center Kyrylo Fesenko, who were assigned Saturday to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash.

It's the first trip to the Orem-based Flash this season for Almond, and the second for Fesenko. Both also spent time with the Jazz's D-League affiliate last season.

The Jazz are in Toronto without either of those players. Today, Utah plays the Raptors in the start of a five-game road trip with 13 players, including rookie big man Kosta Koufos.

Almond, Fesenko and Koufos all have been inactive in recent games when the Jazz have had their top-12 all healty.

Almond and Fesenko, both second-year NBA pros, are expected to play when the Flash open an eight-game homestand against Idaho on Monday night. Fesenko, however, has been ill for more than a week.

The Flash will play three games while the Jazz are away on the current trip, which concludes next Sunday at Orlando.

Almond has appeared in 25 games for the Jazz this season, averaging 3.7 points and shooting 40.7 percent from the field.

The 2007 first-round draft choice from Rice University has been inactive 19 times this season, and dressed but did not play (coach's decision) for 18 other games.

Almond played 34 games for the Flash last season, including one 51-point game and a D-League record-breaking 53-point game.

Fesenko has played 18 games for the Jazz this season, averaging 2.4 points and 1.8 rebounds. He had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double against Houston in December.

The 7-foot-1 Ukrainian has been inactive for 30 games, and dressed but did not play (coach's decision) 14 times.

Fesenko's first stint with the Flash this season was an eight-gamer in January, when he averaged 12.5 points and 9.6 rebounds while logging 27.3 minutes per game.

RUMOR MILL: According to a report Saturday from a Web site called "The Hoop," Koufos told the Greek magazine Tachydromos that the offer to him last summer from the Greek team Olympiakos to play for them and bypass the Jazz and the NBA was for 5 million euros over three years.

Koufos was born in the United States, , but holds dual Greek-American citizenship and plays internationally for Greece.