It's a summer of opportunity for the Utah Jazz, and the guy most squarely in the hot seat realizes what that means.
Kevin O'Connor understands that moves made this offseason could go a long way toward maintaining the team's standard of excellence, perhaps even restoring it to contender status.
Or that they could end in disaster, should the team spend its free-agent money on a future Vin Baker or Jim McIlvaine.
It's a situation that might cause some NBA personnel chiefs to experience sleepless nights, but O'Connor, the team's vice president of basketball operations, has adopted a Jazz-typical common-sense approach to it all.
Whether he ends up as the goat or the hero, he's prepared to live with the results.
"I accept it, because that's the position I'm in," he said. "If you don't want to get talked about . . . you shouldn't take the position, because that's part of it."
It should come as no surprise that O'Connor feels this way. This is not a guy who got where he is by being a former NBA superstar, or because of his parentage, or because he's a 30-something whiz kid to whom someone in power took a liking.
O'Connor is a classic hoops journeyman, having paid his dues in a lot of unglamorous positions for nearly three decades. He played college ball at tiny Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, captaining the team to a 21-5 record as a senior.
Then came a two-year stint in the Army, followed by assistant coaching jobs at Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute, Colorado and UCLA.
O'Connor never became a head coach. He says there were opportunities, but "the jobs weren't right" for reasons related to such things as academics, location and potential for success. The simple fact, he says, is that unless you land a job with one of the top teams in a conference, you're doomed to failure.
"I would have liked to be in the driver's seat," he said, "and be the guy making decisions."
Which he is now, though not via the route he expected. While at UCLA, he went to the NCAA title game with Larry Brown, the well-traveled head coach who recently left the Philadelphia 76ers for the Detroit Pistons.
Then came a long stretch of scouting gigs, culminating in a job as director of player personnel for the Sixers — under Brown. Two seasons later, the Jazz, for whom O'Connor had scouted for three years, picked him as the replacement for Scott Layden, who defected to the Knicks.
So if the expression "paid his dues" leaps to mind when you read O'Connor's bio, that's understandable. But O'Connor gives more credit to good fortune.
"I'm lucky to be where I am," he said. "A lot of people paid their dues, a lot of people were qualified and haven't caught a break."
What O'Connor sees as his break was catching on with a quality organization, as reflected in owner Larry H. Miller and head coach Jerry Sloan.
"I'm fortunate to be able to work for an owner who cares about his coach, his best players, anybody in the organization," O'Connor said. "The stability has shocked me, compared to the rest of the NBA, and that starts with Larry."
As for Sloan, O'Connor said, "He's a guy who cares more about his players and assistant coaches than about his own record."
Clearly, the Miller-Sloan-O'Connor combination is a good match. They share similar attitudes about such things as work ethic and character, giving them a personnel philosophy that should be envied by a number of misdirected NBA teams.
While taking pains not to criticize any specific franchise's record of player decisions — in fact, he believes most teams' philosophical breakdowns can be attributed to coach and GM turnover — O'Connor acknowledges that the Jazz have a cohesive approach to such things.
"I don't think there's ever been a clash of egos," he said. "It's about, 'Hey, how do we figure out how to get the best people on the team, people we want to be around, and win?' "
It's no secret what O'Connor means by "people we want to be around." The Jazz have long stressed trying to bring "good" guys to Utah, players whose demeanor on- and off-court can best represent the franchise. There have been some mistakes, naturally, but for the most part they've managed not only to field a team of high character but to win with it.
"History has shown we've been successful with a certain type of player," O'Connor said. "Besides, I wouldn't like to go to work and not like anybody on the team."
Another key to the Jazz's player philosophy — and this is less obvious than it looks when you consider the league — is finding guys for whom winning is the highest priority.
"You can get a lot of guys who want stats, but if they don't want to win, you're doomed," he said.
As for who has the final say on personnel decisions, O'Connor said, "There's never been a situation where I've gotten down to, 'Hey, we have to do this.' Larry Miller is the owner, so he has the ultimate say on what we're going to do."
This isn't a case of O'Connor chafing at the owner's hands-on approach, however. On the contrary, he appreciates the fact Miller cares and is willing to express an honest opinion.
"There's a lot of people out there that say one thing but do another," O'Connor said. "Larry says one thing and he means it."
Another thing he likes about Miller is his willingness to gamble.
"Larry is not afraid to take a chance," O'Connor said. "Everybody told him not to buy half of the Jazz, then everybody told him not to buy all the Jazz, then everybody told him not to build the Delta Center."
And now Miller is being told the Jazz will have to be awful before they can be good again, but the Jazz owner refuses to accept that.
"Larry Miller has given us permission to be aggressive in the free-agent market," O'Connor said. "He says, 'If we miss, we miss, but let's take a swing.' "
So that leaves O'Connor to step into the batter's box and try to hit a home run for the Jazz. It's a challenge he accepts without qualm.
"You can't be afraid to be wrong with a decision," he said. "You look at everything you can look at, and then you make a decision, and sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong.
"If you play scared, you're not going to be able to win."
E-mail: rich@desnews.com