With the 23rd pick of the 2008 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz selected Kosta Koufos out of Ohio State. Koufos is a 7'1" 265 pound center, who has drawn comparisons to Memo Okur, but with shot bloking ability.
Jazz Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin O'Connor said the Jazz are very happy to see Koufos slide to them at 23. O'Connor said that Koufos, at 19, already has good size, but that he still needs to get a little bigger and stronger.
Koufos spent 1 year at Ohio State averaging 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.8 blks per game and was named the NIT Most Valuable Player. He also has international experience playing on the Greek U18 National Team and averaged 26.5 points, 13 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks leading the tournament in scoring and rebounding on his way to Most Valuable Player honors.
Yea... I know its in the Himalayan range and not that near to Greece... but who cares... its tall and has 2 Ks!
With 14 guys under contract, the Jazz really only needed one piece to fill in the puzzle. As you have mentioned, they need a 15-20 minute a game defensive and rebounding presence to backup Okur and possibly play along side him at times. I think that the Jazz needed to do whatever they had to in order to get that guy in this draft. If Robin Lopez or Hibbert are that guy, then go and get him. I think that for fit, I actually would have rather had Hardin, who has much more defensive potential.
Who knows, maybe this will actually allow the Jazz to use Okur as trade bait and bring in a defensive presence. Camby has been rumored to be on the block. Okur and Brewer for Camby? Would Denver do that? Would the Jazz want to do that?
Collins is just a waste of a roster spot at this point and I think that if anyone would take him off your hands, the Jazz should take it.
On another note, how are the Jazz going to find room for Almond this year? He has clearly shown that he deserves a shot. Brewer is really our only other SG on the team. I consider Harpring, Kirilenko, Miles and Korver to all be SFs. I think that playing Korver at the 2 kills us on defense. He is actually a solid defender as a 3. As much as Harpring is a Sloan guy, I think it is time for us to move him. He is just too slow on defense with all his injuries and we have a log jam at 3.
How do we get these promising youngsters (Fesenko, Miles, Almond) on the floor?
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