Utah Jazz Draft History: 2000 – Present

2005

The 2004-05 season was not good for the Jazz. The Jazz had pieces, but were missing something. They had recently gotten Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur to play alongside Kirilenko and Harpring. However, the Jazz needed someone to run the team. After a season where the Jazz finished 26-56 and landed third in the NBA Draft, they found a guy to run the team.

With the third pick in the draft, the Jazz took Deron Williams out of the University of Illinois. Williams, who Jazz fans are very familiar with, helped take the Jazz back to a perennial playoff caliber team playing with Boozer. Williams and Boozer ran Jerry Sloan‘s pick and roll to help push them to the top of the western conference. As everyone knows, the Jazz ended up trading Deron to the New Jersey Nets after they knew he was not going to re-sign with them after his contract was up. The Jazz took Deron before another high profile guard, who ended up being one of the best point guards in the game today, Chris Paul.

The Jazz also owned picks in the second round that fell at 34th and 51st overall. With the 34th pick, the Jazz added C.J. Miles. Miles ended up playing seven seasons with the Jazz before signing as a free agent prior to the start of the 2012-13 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Miles had spurts where he was really good for the Jazz, and nights where he was really bad. He played pretty much as an average second round draft pick, and still does to this day in Cleveland.

The Jazz also took Robert Whaley with the 51st pick. Not much really to say on Whaley, but the Jazz did pass up a guy like Marcin Gortat (57), who is having a pretty great year in the playoffs right now with the Washington Wizards.