Utah Jazz are in need of some new blood

The most exciting thing going on these days apart from the just-concluded Confederations Cup (what's that? you ask) is the recent NBA draft and upcoming free-agent signings.

The Jazz picked up a couple of draft choices last week that didn't exactly cause jubilation among the Jazz faithful – a skinny point guard and a center who likes to shoot outside.

Let's see, the Jazz already have one of the top point guards in the league as well as a center who likes to shoot outside. Seems to me you'd like to get a guard who can shoot well and is big enough to defend the pesky two-guards that always haunt the Jazz, as well as a center who likes to play around the basket.

But no matter who the Jazz took with the 20th and 50th picks in the draft, they weren't likely to make an impact next year or in the future.

The big news will come later this week, when Jazz potential free agents declare their intentions of opting in or out of their contracts. The likely scenario is that Kyle Korver will re-sign, Mehmet Okur will opt out and eventually re-sign, Carlos Boozer will opt out and sign with another team and the Jazz will re-sign Paul Millsap, assuming he doesn't get a $10 million offer elsewhere.

Let's hope there are at least a few roster shake-ups either in the free-agent signings or with trades. Although the Jazz say they'll be happy with the same lineup as this year, they need some new blood, besides Eric Maynor and Goran Suton, for next year.

. . . . .

Hundreds of people have waited for hours in lines that stretched for blocks to attend the visitation for a slain Iowa high school football coach.

It wasn't that surprising that Utah's Luke Nevill and BYU's Lee Cummard weren't drafted Thursday night considering most mock boards didn't have them among their top 60.

Also, both might have had a better chance of being drafted if they didn't have "Sr." next to their names or if they were from Ukraine, where two second-rounders hailed from.

It seems NBA teams would rather draft underclassmen or foreign players who haven't played college ball. Only five seniors were taken in the first round and besides the pair from Ukraine, players from Sweden, Spain, France, Slovenia, Israel and Italy were drafted.

That leaves guys like Nevill and Cummard on the outside.