Phil Miller of the Tribune reports that the Jazz don't want to lose Sasha Pavlovic to the Charlotte Bobcats in Tuesday's Expansion Draft, but depth at that position may soften the blow.
Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations, Kevin O'Connor explained that Pavlovic was originally drafted by Utah because of the team's need for a shooter. With the addition of Raja Bell and Gordan Giricek and incumbant forwards Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko, Pavlovic may be expendable.
The Jazz would like to keep the 20-year-old forward, who started 14 games and averaged 4.8 points during his rookie season. But O'Connor hinted -- and another NBA source confirmed Saturday -- that no deal with the Charlotte Bobcats is in place, or was even proposed before the Jazz turned in their expansion-draft list.
"We're in conversations with them," O'Connor said, and not necessarily just about Pavlovic. Though he's irritated that the supposedly secret expansion lists became public almost immediately, "there's some people on that list that certainly intrigue us," he said.