Now that rookie Blue Edwards is the starting small forward, the Jazz can toy with their last two roster openings. Friday afternoon, the Jazz waived forwards Rory White and Reggie Turner, leaving 14 players in camp and giving Coach Jerry Sloan almost two weeks to experiment, with these choices as the exhibition schedule continues tonight against Atlanta in the Salt Palace:
- Cutting two backup point guards from the list of Jim Les, Eric Johnson and Joe Hillman and keeping forwards Raymond Brown and Jose Ortiz.- Keeping two of those guards and cutting Brown or Ortiz.
"We try to pick the best 12 players for this team," noted Sloan, not locking himself into quotas of forwards and guards.
Only Brown is left from the original field of four invited to replace veteran forward Marc Iavaroni, but the plan to play the 6-foot-5 Edwards mostly at forward could change the roster breakdown. So could the generally uninspired play of Ortiz, the second-year forward with a guaranteed contract.
"Jose has not worked as hard as I expected," Sloan said. "I don't know if he's satisfied, or what."
Brown, meanwhile, continues to survive eliminations. He was the only forward invited to camp after the Jazz's summer program and is staying around, after originally choosing to play in Switzerland and returning to the states last month after a very brief stay.
In Wednesday's 109-107 win at Atlanta, Brown bought himself a further look with nine points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. "It's just getting that much closer for me, but nothing's guaranteed," Brown said.
Asked how the rookie from Idaho outplayed Turner and White, Sloan said, "He's probably a better defender, at this stage."
If Turner had made the team, the Jazz would have owed Denver a second-round draft pick. That was the condition of a trade last month for Turner, the Nuggets' second-round choice in June. "Turner was probably a better shooter, but we never saw him shoot the ball that well," noted Sloan.
"I don't think I really had a chance to show what I could do," said Turner, who took one shot while playing 13 minutes in two exhibitions.
After playing only 12 minutes in the two games, White expected the cut. "It's not a surprise," he said.
A five-year NBA veteran who spent the last two seasons in Europe, White was the leading contender to replace Iavaroni - if he was what the Jazz remembered from his days with the Los Angeles Clippers. "I'm the same player," White said. Sloan, though, noted, "He didn't appear to me to be as lively as when we saw him before."
Which brings us to Edwards. The issues surrounding the first-round draft choice were how he would adjust to playing guard in the NBA and how Sloan could find playing time for him and guards Bobby Hansen and Darrell Griffith. Answer: leave him at forward. By starting Edwards instead of Mike Brown in advance of Thurl Bailey's nightly appearances, Sloan figures the Jazz will match up better.
"The way this game is today, there are so many small guys like him," Sloan said. "Every team you play against has a flexible player. He plays big enough."
After two exhibitions, it's also clear that Edwards belongs on the floor. So after searching all summer for a more athletic, versatile player to replace Iavaroni, the Jazz may have already found him in the June draft. Says Sloan, "Maybe he's the guy who changes things around a little bit for us."