NBA

Jazz GM defends trading Williams to Nets

A near universal reaction to the Nets’ trade for All-Star Deron Williams was that the Jazz could have gotten more.

“I’d like to hear who those teams are and I’d like them to call me,” Utah GM Kevin O’Connor said this morning at the Garden, hours before the Jazz faced the Knicks.

Or as one opposing executive said, “Sure, after the fact everybody had a better offer. People will say, ‘We would have given this and that, we would have done better’ but where were they before the trade?”

There were calls, especially after the resignation of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, although the Jazz-Nets deal stayed under the radar. And figure the Jazz would have reached out to the Knicks if the Carmelo Anthony trade had not occurred. Denver essentially bought up the items the Jazz would have sought from the Knicks, including a point guard (Raymond Felton).

So with the Jazz wary of becoming this year’s Nuggets next year, with a franchise player on a very public trading block, O’Connor pulled the trigger on an admittedly hard decision.

“It was very difficult,” O’Connor said. “But it came down to the long term health of the franchise.”

He is satisfied with the return haul, especially Derrick Favors, who was highly rated on Utah’s draft board last June. O’Connor got two first-round picks plus the point guard he sought by landing Devin Harris.

“When we looked at what we needed, we thought we had a pretty good basketball team and adding somebody who played in an All-Star Game at point guard at 28 with a couple of years left on a contract, we thought that was a real positive,” O’Connor said. “Getting Derrick, the third pick in the draft, and the Nets’ pick this year, it answered all of the things we needed to get. From the point of view we got a good young draft pick, then another one this year and then Golden State’s draft pick (2012) after that. And then getting Devin, who we feel is a top tier point guard. It answered what we needed.”

As much as they like Harris, the Jazz love Favors.

“We all liked him (before the draft),” O’Connor said. “You look at the physicality. Now, he’s got a lot of learning to do and that’s one of the things we thought. Size it’s like pitching. You can never have enough starting pitching. That was a consideration. With Paul (Millsap), he’s 6-7. This kid is a lot bigger. And then they can play together like we did with (Carlos) Boozer.

“So (with picks and young players) we think we can build on the run and not have to go through the pain,” O’Connor said.