National Basketball Association

Utah Jazz hold first pre-draft workouts of summer

Published May. 6, 2015 4:49 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Quin Snyder and his assistants weren't in place when the Utah Jazz began their pre-draft workouts a year ago. The entire coaching staff will have its fingerprints all over the process this time around.

The Jazz held their first pre-draft workout of the offseason Wednesday, hosting six seniors and officially beginning the next stage of player evaluation.

Snyder is out of town this week, but general manager Dennis Lindsey, assistant general manager Justin Zanik and vice president of player personnel Walt Perrin were all in attendance. Assistant coach Brad Jones ran the session that included guards D.J. Newbill (Penn State), Rayvonte Rice (Illinois), Trey Zeigler (TCU), Russell Byrd (Master's College), Denzel Livingston (Incarnate Word) and forward Maurice Ndour (Ohio).

''Quin tweaked a few things. Brad Jones, who is running our workouts, he's tweaked a few things,'' Perrin said. ''It's an ever-changing process. We'll try to perfect it sometime in the near future.''

The Jazz aren't exactly looking for stars at this early date. Potential lottery picks will be seen at the NBA draft combine in Chicago on May 12-17. This stretch is used to unearth potential contributors like Bryce Cotton, who participated in the first Jazz workout last year and signed two 10-day contracts with the team during the season before getting a multi-year deal in March.

''We try to bring in a lot of players so we get to know them and look down the road,'' Perrin said, ''as they may be playing in the (developmental) league or somewhere else and keep an eye on them and see whether or not they will fit into the Jazz culture and be a good Jazz player.

''Dennis (Lindsey) has always said, no matter how many of these workouts that we do, and we try to do a lot of them, if you get one, it's been successful. All the workouts we did last year were successful because we got Bryce Cotton out of it.''

The Jazz finished 38-44 and will find out their draft position at the NBA draft lottery on May 19. The team tied with the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets for the 11th-worst winning percentage and has a 0.7 percent chance for the No. 1 overall pick.

''Most drafts you look at are usually top heavy, but I still think you can find players late in the first or even in the second round if you really do your due diligence,'' Perrin said. ''I don't see a lot of NBA superstars, if any. But that's not to say someone won't jump forward and become the next Steph Curry or someone like that. Because I don't think Stephen was thought of that when he came out.''

share

Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Basketball Association