Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Jazz are staying put in the NBA draft order.
Utah will pick ninth next month in the draft. The Jazz had slim hopes of moving up in the lottery on Tuesday night, but stayed right where they were before the drawing.
Although the Jazz advanced to the second round of the playoffs, they hold the New York Knicks' first-round pick because of a trade Utah made with Phoenix in 2004. The pick had been protected up until this year.
"Any time you can get something basically for nothing, I think it's worth the wait," Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said during a conference call from Secaucus, N.J., where he attended the lottery.
O'Connor said the Jazz expected New York's pick to come in somewhere around No. 8, which turned out to be off target by just one. The lottery -- and the 2.2 percent chance Utah had of leaping up to the top pick -- didn't end up helping the Jazz, but it didn't knock them backwards, either.
Sitting at ninth, the Jazz can forget about Kentucky point guard John Wall and national player of the year Evan Turner of Ohio State. But ninth is still much higher than the picks the Jazz are used to holding much later in the first round.
Utah hasn't had a top-10 pick since the Jazz took Deron Williams third overall in 2005. Utah's last top-10 pick before Williams was Thurl Bailey at No. 7 in 1983.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
