As everyone who has read my blog knows, I’m a huge Utah Jazz fan. I try to stay impartial, but I’m sure I don’t manage to do it often. As a Utah Jazz fan, I feel obligated to at least comment on what I think they should do tonight in the 2007 NBA Draft.

The Utah Jazz doesn’t pick until #25.

Good players have been taken at 25 and below. Just look at the Utah Jazz picks from last year for an example. Or San Antonio’s picks just about every year.

The Utah Jazz have a great need at shooting guard.

Here is the low down…

• Gordan Giricek is streaky and injured too often for a consistent rotation.
• Matt Harpring is more of a small forward, often too slow to guard some of the exceptionally fast 2 guards in the league, though he has been called on to play that position at times.
• C.J. Miles is a free agent after this year, and the Jazz have to decide if they want to give the young kid more time to develop or not. He has played very well in a few games, but has not managed to crack the rotation very often. But he is VERY young. The Jazz picked him up in the second round straight out of high school.
• Ronnie Brewer has played pretty well at that position and needs more time as well.
• Derek Fisher is a point guard, though he filled in admirably at the two during the playoffs and much of last season.

As a note, because it is important,

• Rafael Araujo and Dee Brown are also free agents.
• The Utah Jazz have two draft picks tonight
• The Utah Jazz have 10 players under contract.
• That leaves them 5 slots for draft picks, free agent signings, and signing Araujo, Brown, and/or Miles.
• actually it probably only leaves them 4 slots because the Jazz like to leave a slot free for any potential mid-season trades that might require it.
• The Jazz are very, very young. Fisher has 10 years in the league. Harpring has 8 years in the league. The rest have 5 or less.

Slot 1 of 4: They are rumored to be looking at signing Mo Peterson as their shooting guard replacement. I think that would be a great move if they can do it. There are some other very good shooters available in free agency as well, many that can be had for the mid-level exception. They need to pick up Mo or another good shooting guard from the group of available veterans. If they do it, that leaves them 3 slots.

Slot 2 of 4: If I were the Jazz I would re-sign Dee Brown to be the third point guard. As we saw during the playoffs, the Jazz really NEED a third point guard in case the other two guys can’t go because of personal reasons, health problems, or foul trouble. He should be able to be had for pretty cheap, and he ran the point pretty well when Deron and Derek couldn’t be in there. That’s pretty good for a rookie. He would certainly probably do it better, with a year under his belt, than any point guard that the Jazz could pick at 25 or 55, at least for this coming NBA season.

Now we are down to two more slots. The Jazz have two draft picks, one of which is guaranteed money because it is a first round draft pick. The other pick is one the Jazz can choose to sign or waive and make a free agent, thus “losing” the pick without getting anything out of it.

Also, it ought to be said that teams are considering this draft the deepest in years. Late first round picks this year will potentially yield better players than similar picks in future drafts, most likely. Teams are doing more to get them, too, especially if they traded this years picks in previous trades.

So what should the Jazz do with two slots left and picks 25, 55, Rafael Araujo, and C.J. Miles available. Not to mention other free agents on the market.

Slot 3 of 4: If C.J. Miles comes cheap, I sign him. He has 2 years under his belt in the NBA and Development League level. He knows Sloan’s offense pretty well. He deserves a couple more years to try and make it. He plays shooting guard, just like Utah needs, and he is fairly tall for the shooting guard position. He’s just what the Jazz need, if he can get better. I say to give him a shot, as long as the price is right.

Slot 4 of 4: I say that you try to find a cheap big man, and sign him. One that has been in the league a few years would be preferable, Araujo if you have to. The stipulation is that he has to be inexpensive, which is hard to find among big men, and he has to be willing to come to Utah, which can also be difficult at times.

Utah doesn’t need any more rookies. They already have PLENTY of young talent that need to mature. Throwing in yet another rookie just means one more young guy that Jerry Sloan has to deal with.

It certainly isn’t a very flashy choice, and it certainly isn’t a very gutsy choice either. (Not that draft picks is very gutsy. The REAL gutsy choice would be to trade Andre Kirilenko straight up for Ray Allen, and use Harpring and Millsap as your small forward in Kirilenko’s place, but I don’t think the Utah Jazz management is that gutsy.)

I’m almost certain that just about all of the Utah Jazz fans don’t want to hear it.

The best move for them right now would be to just trade their draft picks for picks in later years (trading them to bad teams if they can) or pick a good European player who wouldn’t come over right away (like the San Antonio Spurs do just about every year and the Utah Jazz did with Andre Kirilenko some years back).

The young guys the Jazz have now need to mature some.

They have some great pieces. They can acquire the missing pieces in free agency and through developing their current assets.

The Jazz coaches just need to help the current roster (and a veteran addition or two) to develop and gel into a championship team.