BOISE — One might wonder why a free-agent journeyman like Rusty LaRue even bothers to come to a training camp like that of the Jazz.
Team officials have indicated they probably won't keep more than 12 healthy players, and they already have a dozen with guaranteed contracts in hand. Those same decision-makers have suggested they don't plan to carry more than two pure point guards, and both John Stockton and John Crotty don't seem to be going anywhere else any time soon.
So why does he do it?
Perhaps it is because LaRue is one of the few with a bona fide shot — both putting the ball in the basket and at actually cracking the Jazz's seemingly rock-solid roster.
"I'm hoping that, just in camp, I'll maybe impress them enough that maybe they'll feel they (should) keep me around," said LaRue, a 27-year-old point guard who was undrafted out of Wake Forest University, where besides leading the Deacon Demons to an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball championship as a senior, he played both pitcher on the baseball team and quarterback on the football team.
LaRue — who has played in the CBA, has made six starts in 61 games over parts of three seasons with the Chicago Bulls and was a teammate of Jazz rookie Andrei Kirilenko in Russia last season — should have ample opportunity to show his stuff during an eight-game preseason schedule that begins for Utah with Tuesday night's game against Sacramento in The Pavilion at Boise State University.
"That's one of the main reasons you come somewhere like this," said LaRue, who stood out last July for the Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue summer-league team for NBA rookies, youngsters and free-agent hopefuls. "I mean, you know John (Stockton) is not going to play a lot in the preseason. . . . They have, also, John Crotty, who's pretty established in the league, so you're hoping to get some good minutes to show other teams what you can do.
"And," added LaRue, who at 6-foot-3 can play some shooting guard in addition to running the point, "(the Jazz's) is a system, for me, that I feel like I can excel in. It's the type of game, and style of game, that I like - so that's one (other) reason you come."
The Jazz are pleased he RSVP'd their invitation to camp in the affirmative, because Utah brass looks at LaRue as someone who not only can spell their veterans early and often during the preseason, but also as someone who can play in the NBA — especially if an injury should plague either of their under-contract point men.
"He knows how to run a team, and get in an offense. We like that about him," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of LaRue, who is being challenged in camp by Randy Livingston, a former Louisiana State University guard who has played for four NBA teams in five seasons after undergoing two major knee surgeries before he even turned pro.
"He (LaRue) can shoot the ball," Sloan added. "He can make open shots."
LaRue could have gone to other NBA camps, including Atlanta's. Instead, he is hoping Sloan will be persuaded by more of what the Jazz coach already likes about him.
"I felt like this was going to be my best opportunity, and just thought it would be a real good experience to come to camp with this team," said LaRue, a married father of three with no real desire to return to Russia.
So the ex-Bull, owner of an NBA title ring from Chicago's 1998 Finals win over Utah, joined the Jazz, who offered him no roster promises and even fewer financial assurances.
"You'd like to get some guaranteed money, obviously. But, at this point, I've played overseas, I've made some money," LaRue said. "You just want to come in and try to get into the best situation you can, where you feel like have a chance to make a team, or you're at least going to get an opportunity to show what you can do.
"You like to think there's always some room," he added. "I mean, the year I made the Bulls there wasn't any room either. But you just hope that you can play well enough to impress them enough that they don't mind spending the money to keep you around."
That's why he bothers. That's why he does it.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com