Utah
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
The Utah Jazz commence their training camp in Dixie next week and last year's surprise stars will join this offseason's additions and five other invitees to battle it out for 12 active roster spots and 3 on the injured reserve.
Joining Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, and Raul Lopez, among others from last year, are newcomers Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur, plus rookies Kris Humphries and Kirk Snyder. That's a lineup and a half right there, but their competition isn't over.
The five additional training camp invitees are also familiar names and faces. Cedric Henderson, a 6-7 forward out of the league for the past three years, will be a practice body for a week. Jason Miskiri, a 6-2 point guard out of the NBDL, is looking to replace Mo Williams as the third string point guard. He will also be competing with Keith McLeod, also at 6-2, who started last season with the Timberwolves. Peter Cornell, a 6-11 center, played for Utah's summer league team. Aleksandar Radojevic, a 7-2 center originally drafted by the Raptors five years ago, is a European player, which probably means he will look to draw out the other centers to the perimeter rather than bang down low.
Jerry Sloan will be running intense two-a-days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. For more information, see the Newslines below.
TEAM NOTES
Jazz to Retire #12: The Jazz announced on Tuesday that the team will retire #12 in honor of John Stockton's 19-year career with Utah. The retirement ceremony will take place on Monday, November 22 as the Jazz host the New Orleans Hornets.
Dave D'Alessandro ofThe Newark Star-Ledgerwrites: But [New Jersey Head Coach Lawrence] Frank, after admitting that the organization "went through a lot of pain and grieving" following the loss of Kenyon Martin, ran off a number of teams from recent sports history that have overcome talent depletion... "The Utah Jazz, people said they were going to win nine games. They would have made the playoffs if (Matt) Harpring didn't get hurt."
The Spectrumwrites: With the Utah Jazz preseason training camp coming to Dixie next week, it's time to reacquaint everyone with Utah's roster... [T]he Jazz have invited five other players to fall camp who may be able to join the team under Utah's practice of signing one or two additional players and stashing them on injured reserve.