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SALT LAKE CITY -- Johan Petro will be the starting center for Denver in Game 6, as Nene sits out with a sprained left knee. In theory, that swap should provide the Jazz the same break the Nuggets supposedly got when Mehmet Okur was lost for the series and the untested Kyrylo Fesenko took his place in the starting lineup.

Only it hasn't worked out that way exactly.

Fesenko has had his ups and downs in this series. He's shot well in his limited opportunities from the field (8-for-13) and hit a couple of big free throws down the stretch in Game 4. But he's also been a turnover machine -- third in turnover rate among postseason players behind only Kendrick Perkins and Erick Dampier. How have the Jazz played overall when Fesenko is holding down the middle?

Exceptionally well.

When Fesenko is on the floor, the Jazz are giving up a respectable 106.6 points per 100 possessions. When he's not out there, they're hemorrhaging a whopping 120.1 points per 100 possessions. Though Nene can occasionally be his own worst enemy by failing to capitalize on generous opportunities in the half court, Fesenko's presence is one reason why the Nuggets were unable to leverage Nene's athleticism into meaningful results.

With Petro as his primary matchup in Game 6, Fesenko should have the luxury to roam more and act as general basket protector against the Nuggets' attacking offense, right?

Not so fast, says Fesenko.

You can't completely write off a player like Petro just because he doesn't have the offensive profile a guy like Nene has. The reason Fesenko knows this?

He's that guy -- the one you leave to help on a much better player:

I'm not going to underestimate him. I know what it's like when the players underestimate you. You get easy baskets. That's how my baskets are actually [scored]. All my baskets.

Petro has a fairly decent face-up jumper. He shot 17-for-37 (46 percent) from between 10 feet the the arc this season and has the athleticism to dive to the basket behind the Jazz defense if they ignore him altogether.

A Fesenko-Petro matchup isn't the stuff that drives audiences to the NBA, but how much each defense is willing to play off the opposing center to help out on the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Chauncey Billups should be interesting to watch.

DENVER -- The Denver Nuggets have a secret arsenal of nearly unstoppable plays. There's only one hitch headed into Game 5:

Acting head coach Adrian Dantley isn't sure he can get his team to run them.

That's because the Nuggets see themselves as a certain kind of basketball team with an anti-system. Mike D'Antoni has 7-seconds-or-less. Phil Jackson has The Triangle. Jerry Sloan has The Flex. And Dantley has inherited from George Karl what he's referred to more than once as "random basketball."

What does "random basketball" mean? That's Dantley's description of how the Nuggets perceive themselves offensively -- a team that flourishes by pounding you with dominant one-on-one play in the half court and with breakneck transition buckets. Dantley isn't the only one to make that general characterization. When asked about the Nuggets' woeful assist total of 13 following Game 4, Chauncey Billups conceded, "We aren't really a high-assist team. That's not how our offense is made."

It's true that Denver runs a more individualistic half-court offense than Utah does and, as Carmelo Anthony pointed out today, that plan of attack has served them well for several seasons. In fact, Denver isn't exactly struggling offensively in this series. The Nuggets' offensive efficiency of 110.9 points per 100 possessions is an improvement on their regular season efficiency of 108.7. But after walloping the Jazz in Game 1 of the series, the Nuggets have posted a more modest efficiency rating of 104.7.

A stubborn devotion to "random basketball" is one of the reasons Denver's offense has fallen off since Game 1, and there's something obtuse about the Nuggets' unwillingness to construct coherent possessions in the half court against Utah. When the Nuggets choose to run deliberate sets, they're shredding the Jazz -- particularly on the pick-and-roll.

To illustrate, let's go back to Game 2. The Nuggets are coming off an emphatic 126-113 win. Fesenko has taken over as Utah's starting center after Mehmet Okur was lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon in Game 1. The vibe is that the Jazz are done. Denver comes out of the opening jump with three straight Carmelo Anthony-Nene pick-and-rolls, and all of them produce points:

• Anthony gets the ball above the right elbow where he gets a little screen from Nene. It's not a Kendrick Perkins-grade screen, but it buys Anthony space away from C.J. Miles to dribble right and begin his attack. Anthony elevates for a jumper at 17 feet, draws the foul on Miles and drains two free throws.
• This play could've been ripped from the Phoenix Suns playbook. Another screen for Anthony from Nene at precisely the same spot. This time, Anthony puts the ball on the deck, drives right and dishes to Arron Afflalo in the right corner. Afflalo drives right by Wes Matthews into the paint. Fesenko is the last line of defense here. When he commits, Nene cuts behind him. Afflalo hits Nene on the move to the rim for an easy lay-in.
• This possession is just cruel and prompted me to write in my game notes, "UTA can't defend this." Same pick-and-roll with Anthony as the ball-hander at the same spot. This is Nene's best screen of the three and draws the switch the Nuggets are salivating for: Fesenko backpedaling against a driving Anthony in open space. When Anthony, who is driving right, sees that the bulk of the Jazz help defenders are on that side of the floor, he switches left, then finishes untouched at the basket. This is the moment I truly believed the series was over.

According to Synergy Sports, the Nuggets have choreographed a pick-and-roll -- then hit the roll man -- 17 times in this series. The results:

• Nine made baskets
• Six trips to the free throw line
• Two missed shot attempts

That's an 88.2 percent success rate.

Those 17 possessions in sequence is an impressive reel of video. Ball-handlers/passers include Billups, Anthony, Ty Lawson and J.R. Smith. All the Nuggets bigs are represented among the roll men. Whatever the scenario, the Nuggets score on 15 of the 17 opportunities, which leaves you with one question:

Why are the Nuggets running this action only four times per game?

One explanation might be that Jazz defenders are effectively trapping the ball-handler, making a pass through the double-team treacherous. But that's clearly not the Jazz's strategy when defending the pick-and-roll, even when Anthony is the ball-handler -- which brings us to another interesting bit of data:

Anthony has been the ball-handler on nine pick-and-roll sets. On those nine possessions, he's 7-for-7 from the field, with two turnovers.

Overall, only four teams this postseason are doing better work off the pick-and-roll, but with the exception of the Lakers and Utah (the two most orthodox systems in the bracket), no team is running them less frequently than the Nuggets. Instead, Denver is relying on isolations, post-ups and spot-ups, where they're generating ho-hum results -- less than one point per possession.

I asked Dantley about the success Denver had running the pick-and-roll and why the team wasn't deploying them more readily.

"We looked over our offensive stats and we definitely score more on our pick-and-rolls," Dantley said.

Then why doesn't he call for them more often over the course of the game?

"That's the way we play," Dantley said. "We've had more success right now with the pick-and-roll, more than 'random,' but our basketball team is known as a 'random' basketball team."

At some point, doesn't a team have to recognize what works? And whatever the identity of the team might be, shouldn't the team conform to what's working?

"That's what we've told them," Dantley said. "Whether they do it every time, that's a different story. Statistically, we tell them every game, 'Hey, run the pick-and-roll. Run drags. We've had success with that more than "random" basketball.'"

Given that success, will that be the plan Wednesday night in Game 5?

"I'm agreeing with you," Dantley said. "Statistically, we've had success on pick-on-rolls. We've told them that. We want them to do that tomorrow. Hopefully they do it. But, the last five years, we do more 'random' than we do pick-and-roll."

Dantley's comments suggest that there's a serious disconnect between acting head coach and the team's on-court personnel. It's not unusual for a team to fail its coach as a sin of omission. Both Jerry Sloan and Dantley are certain to tell their players to crash the boards tomorrow night, but one of their two teams will do a subpar job. That coach will be disappointed and very possibly angry. But that's much different than a coach laying out a very specific set of strategic imperatives, and the players on the floor not heeding those instructions. If you take Dantley's remarks at face value, he's implying this is what's been happening with the Nuggets, and he has no assurances that dynamic won't continue in Game 5.

SALT LAKE CITY -- It’s not that Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams isn’t an emotional player, but during the course of a game, that palette of emotions rarely features a smile. So when he flashed a big grin as he headed to the bench after Denver called a desperation timeout, it was obvious that things were falling into place for the Jazz. On the preceding possession, Williams picked off an errant pass on the defensive end and raced down the floor for an easy layup.

Jazz by 20 with fewer than nine minutes to go in Game 3. Utah ultimately won the game going away, notching a 105-93 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.

Leading up to Friday night, acting Nuggets head coach Adrian Dantley made no secret of his intention to devote inordinate attention to Williams, who burned the Nuggets for 59 points and 25 assists in the series’ first two games. While Williams didn’t record the gaudy numbers he put up in Denver, he still finished with 24 points and 10 assists on a very efficient 8-for-14 shooting from the floor. In doing so, he fell one point short of being only the second player in NBA history to rack up 25 points and 10 assists in each of the first three games of a playoff series (Michael Jordan, first round, 1989).

More notable than Williams’ individual production on Friday night was his leadership of the offense. The Jazz point guard made the Nuggets pay for loading up on him. Call it the Law of Basketball Reciprocity: A defense can’t commit disproportionate attention to one player or area without surrendering an advantage elsewhere on the floor.

“[Denver] made a commitment to keep Deron boxed in,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “Deron has played against that stuff, and if our other people do their job, we can get decent looks at the basket.”

Those decent looks materialized all over the court against a Denver defense that seemed off-kilter for most of the night. Once Williams worked out of the trap, open shots were available all over the floor.

“They kept doubling me,” Williams said. “I got it to the middle. We were able to run some pick-and-rolls and hit the middle guy and get down the lane. We patiently waited.”

For much of the first half, that “middle guy” for the Jazz was othersized forward Paul Millsap. The Jazz's supersub took over the game in the second quarter, when Utah built the lead it would never relinquish.

“Oh my God he was a monster tonight!” Boozer said. “That’s the Paul Millsap we love.”

Millsap had a perfect first half -- 18 points on 9-of-9 shooting from the field, along with eight rebounds. He finished with 22 and 19, a source of some disappointment for Boozer.

“I told him, ‘I didn’t know you had 19 boards,’” Boozer said. “’If you’d let me know, I would’ve gotten you one more!’”

Millsap set up shop just above the baseline, where the Nuggets laid out a welcome mat. A quick shift in balance by Denver’s interior defenders was all it took for Utah’s perimeter players to find Millsap with their typically crisp passing. When Millsap wasn’t being fed on the block, he was gobbling up offensive boards or taking the likes of Chris Andersen off the dribble from the elbow.

“I just wanted to be aggressive, try to establish myself down low,” Millsap said. “There was an opportunity down there, so we attacked them.”

Asked about Boozer’s offer of a 20^th rebound, Millsap demurred.

“That wouldn’t have been right,” Millsap said with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t have accepted it.”

As sound as the Jazz were offensively, the Nuggets were disoriented. Consider the matchup at center, where stand-in Kyrylo Fesenko outscored Nene 9-8 in 15 fewer minutes of playing time (and Fesenko actually matched Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups in assists with three). Prior to the series, Dantley cited passing the ball and getting Nene touches as his two primary goals on offense. On Friday night, the Nuggets failed miserably on both accounts. They recorded only 12 assists, while Nene managed just four shots from the field to go with eight free throws.

“What I’m most disappointed at is the way we failed to compete tonight as a team,” Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said. “We knew we were going to be in a dogfight tonight. Nobody said it was going to be easy. As far as our effort, I’m highly disappointed.”

Anthony and Billups were the only two Nuggets to score in double-digits, with 25 points each. Denver’s troika of big men (Kenyon Martin, Nene, Andersen) were particularly ineffectual, combining to shoot 3-for-15 from the field. Credit the Jazz defense. After a harried first quarter, Utah did a solid job denying post entry passes into the Nuggets' big men, and plugged passing lanes to the weak side (Utah recorded 10 steals), causing the Denver offense to stagnate and rush shots. The Nuggets' offensive output was lousy, but their interior defense might have been worse.

"Defensively, we've got to do a better job playing their post guys," Dantley said. "They scored a lot of points in the paint. We know we're supposed to double when they get in the paint, and we didn't do that."

After taking a double-digit lead early, the Nuggets disintegrated against a Utah offense that finally started to knock down shots after posting a 32 percent shooting clip in the first quarter. From there, Denver played a game of whack-a-mole against Utah's constantly evolving, well-tuned attack.

"I thought we had control of Boozer and Williams in the first half," Anthony said. "Once we made adjustments to gain control of Millsap and Matthews in the second half, Williams and Boozer woke up."

Denver's tactical failures weren't pretty in Game 3, but the Nuggets also have to be concerned about disposition. Though they suffered a grueling loss on their home court in Game 2, the Nuggets never lacked for effort. But on Friday night, they looked like a dispirited, directionless bunch, especially in the second half when they were blown out of the arena. Billups' selection of off-balanced contested jumpers was uncharacteristic and hurt his team. Anthony picked up his fifth foul on a silly hack in the backcourt toward the end of the third quarter, after which Denver imploded. Thirty seconds later, Billups botched an easy transition opportunity with a lazy pass downcourt. On the ensuing possession, Andersen picked up a technical foul. It was the sort of meltdown to which the Nuggets are occasionally susceptible.

After the game, the Jazz were buoyant -- though measured -- in victory. Quality teams rarely duplicate a performance in the postseason and the Jazz are well aware that Denver has the talent to bounce back.

"You know, they'll try something different the next time, and we'll have to be ready to adjust," Sloan said. "That's what the playoff are."

DENVER -- A beleaguered Utah Jazz team entered Game 2 in Denver with a litany of worries. In Game 1, they lost their starting center, Mehmet Okur, for the season with a torn left achilles tendon. That void thrust the very green Kyrylo Fesenko into the starting lineup for Monday night’s Game 2. Meanwhile, the Jazz were already without their best defender, Andrei Kirilenko, whose absence put excessive pressure on his understudies, C.J. Miles and Wesley Matthews. Carmelo Anthony torched the young tandem for 42 points in Game 1, and arrived on Monday night hungry for more.

Undermanned on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, the Jazz had only one saving grace -- their lethal screen-and-roll combination of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. The pair orchestrated a clinic on Monday night, baffling the Nuggets’ defense with their two-man waltz, with Deron Williams as the lead. Williams finished with 33 points and 14 assists, vaulting the Jazz to an improbable and frenetic 114-111 win over the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, tying the series at one game apiece.

"This is a big win for us," Williams said. "Nobody was really giving us a shot. We just wanted to come out here and put that to rest. We feel like we still have a great team that can compete and we're really proud of how we played and battled tonight."

Williams had a series of offensive imperatives on Monday night, and he succeeded at every one of them. First, he attacked Denver off the dribble every chance he got, looking for either a seam to the basket, or contact against a collapsing Nugget defender. Williams made his way to the stripe for 18 attempts, draining 16. Second, Williams engaged Boozer -- and occasionally Paul Millsap -- with their patented pick-and-roll. Finally, if Williams was unable to find a path to the rim or his post option was covered, he empowered weak side threats like Kyle Korver and C.J. Miles by executing the Jazz’s offensive system to perfection. Korver scored 13 points, while Miles had another solid offensive performance with 17 points.

"[Williams] set the tone from the beginning," Boozer said. "He came out aggressive, got to the basket, hit shots -- jumper after jumper -- then got to the free throw line ... It made the job easier on the rest of us because he was playing so well offensively."

Williams’ most exquisite play came out of a timeout with 1:43 remaining in the game and the Jazz trailing 106-105. At the top of the circle, Williams broke down Chauncey Billups off the bounce. When the Nuggets’ wing defenders collapsed on him in the paint, Williams threw a dart to Korver in the right corner, where the sharpshooter drained a 3-pointer to put Utah on top 108-106, a lead that they would never relinquish.

"I was kind of open a lot in the fourth quarter," Korver said. "Never wide open, but kind of open and I kept telling myself, 'Be ready.'"

Utah was open a lot in the first half. The Jazz shot a blistering 73.3 percent in the first quarter, and 67.7 percent overall before halftime. In addition to Williams' proficiency from the outside, Boozer killed Denver both rolling to the basket and by flashing to the top of the circle, where he drained a series of high-arching shots during a 17-3 Utah run to close the first half. Boozer scored 20 points on the night.

Leading 63-51 at intermission, the Jazz had to sustain a furious 14-0 rally by the Nuggets in the third quarter. The Nuggets combined a sequence of strong stands on the defensive end and aggressive ball pressure to fuel their comeback. The Jazz gave the Nuggets a hand by putting them in the penalty at the 9:18 mark of the period.

"We know who they are," Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan said when asked about Denver's rally. "It's not a secret. They're a terrific team -- and they can score. They can really score easily."

Both Denver and Utah are notoriously foul-prone and that held true Monday night, as the teams combined for 91 free throw attempts. In total, there were 73 successful free throws converted to 71 made shots from the floor.

Utah regained control of the game for a stretch at the end of the third quarter behind three Korver jumpers and three pairs of free throws, but would have to withstand another run by Denver in the fourth quarter. A turnover and a blocked shot on consecutive Utah possessions ignited the Nuggets' break in the opening minutes of the period. Billups lobbed a pass on the break over the Utah transition defense to Nene for an easy slam. Then Smith collected his block of Williams' layup attempt and found Billups downcourt for a spot-up 3-pointer to give Denver its first lead of the second half at 92-91.

The game's final nine minutes were a back-and-forth affair. Each team pounded the ball inside as the interior defenses disintegrated on both ends. Utah spread the wealth as Williams compiled five assists over the final stretch, while Denver put the ball into Anthony's hands and let him attack the Jazz inside. In the run-up to Monday night’s game, Utah vowed to match Denver’s prolific offense with a more rugged brand of physicality. Anthony, in particular, was able to roam around the floor relatively untouched in Game 1. Utah’s defenders clearly adjusted their strategy on Anthony. As advertised, Miles and Matthews bodied up on him, invading Anthony's space by playing right on his hip.

"They tried to force me more to go to the basket," Anthony said. "They tried to jam me a little bit."

That strategy can be seen if you examine Anthony's shot chart. He finished the night with 32 points, but he converted only 9 of his 25 attempts from the field – every one of those nine in the immediate basket area. Like Williams, Anthony took advantage of a tightly-officiated contest, earning 15 free throw attempts of his own. For Jazz's part, they were relatively satisfied. Utah appreciates that stopping Anthony from scoring is an impossibility. The goal for Miles and Matthews coming into Monday night's game was to frustrate Anthony and take him out of his comfort zone. Mission accomplished on both counts.

"They did great" Boozer said of Miles and Matthews. "They set the tone by being a little more physical with [Anthony] when he crossed over half court."

The Nuggets were whistled for 37 fouls -- a new record for a Jazz playoff opponent. Throughout the game, Denver was demonstratively upset with the officiating, though the free throw disparity favored Utah by only a 47-44 margin. The Nuggets' frustration was palpable and the excess emotion might have been detrimental to their cause.

"We talked about trying to get under their skin a little bit," Williams said. "We wanted to be physical with them from the start of the game, make guys have to work a little harder for their points. I think we did a good job of that tonight."

Denver will have a hard time erasing the memory of the game's closing minutes, when they led the Jazz by three points inside of three minutes. In addition to a missed Billups free throw with 53 second left, there were two offensive fouls -- one each by Billups and Anthony -- along with two additional miscues by Anthony. The first occurred when he brought the ball low on a drive to the basket, ultimately getting stripped and turning it over to Utah. The second mistake came with 25 seconds left with the Nuggets trailing by a single point. Anthony decided to pressure Miles aggressively in the backcourt, and picked up his sixth foul in the process.

"We'll take all those," Williams said of Denver's blunders.

The Jazz's resilience stems from the confidence that if they implement their program with intelligence and poise, they can succeed, even with key personnel in street clothes. Utah's belief in that system is a primary reason why the Jazz have tallied only one losing season in Sloan's 22-year tenure. Even with Okur and Kirilenko sidelined, Utah's offensive schemes hummed with a familiar precision on Monday night. If anything, the injuries seemed to strengthen the Jazz's resolve.

"Their team is a wounded team," Billups said. "They came out and took care of business."

Cornered and bloodied, the Jazz mimicked the Trail Blazers and wrested home court advantage from an ostensibly superior opponent with more firepower. The wounded animal bit back.

The Wounded Animal
The loss of Mehmet Okur to a ruptured left achilles tendon has exacted both an emotional toll on the Jazz and left them with young third-year big man Kyrylo Fesenko as their starting center in Game 2. "Wounded animal" was a characterization used more than once in the circuit of interviews at the Pepsi Center on Monday morning. "A wounded animal is a dangerous animal," Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups said. "[The Jazz] still have some players who can beat you. They have some players who really weren't getting an opportunity to play and now they will get that opportunity, and they're going to be hungry." "They're backed up into a bit of a corner," Nuggets guard J.R. Smith said.

Adjustments on Anthony
The understanding from both squads is that Utah will combat Carmelo Anthony much more physically. "They're try to get me frustrated, try to beat me up a little bit," Anthony said. "I know it's coming. I just want to get ready for it and stay composed, not let them try to get in my head, which I know they'll try to do." C.J. Miles will assume the bulk of the defensive work against Anthony. "We can't let him be the initiator every time," Miles said. "Wesley and I sat down and talked about yesterday before practice about how we want to play him -- just try to get up and force him further out on the floor. He likes that mid-range area. He made a lot of jump shots last game and we want to make him take longer shots. We want to be up on him and make him take more than one or two dribbles to get into his moves and his shots." On a different note, Adrian Dantley made reference both on Sunday and today that, in some respect, Anthony has caught a break in this series by not having to face off against Andrei Kirilenko. Asked to comment on his coach's assessment, Anthony replied, "Next question."

Meet Kyrylo Fesenko, Starting Center
The 23-year-old big man has played a total of 408 minutes in the 2009-10 season. By virtue of Mehmet Okur's season-ending injury, Fesenko has been thrust into Utah's starting lineup. Opportunity or liability? Fesenko was a bit reticent, clearly nervous, but cautiously excited about the chance to play. As he began his response to the first question, Fesenko quickly excused himself to spit out his gum. "Just trying to be respectful," he said sheepishly. He then spoke about the huge chance he has to contribute to a team that desperately needs a defensive presence in the middle. "It means a lot to me," Fesenko said of the opportunity. "It means that coach really trusts me. I don't know, I'm speechless." Fesenko will have the daunting task of trying to contain Nene defensively. "The biggest challenge is that he's very quick," Fesenko said. "All his spin moves. That's going to be very tough for me. I've played against him and I fouled out in about 10 minutes." Fesenko also appreciates that he's not alone. He doesn't need to match Okur's offensive output and his primary responsibility will be helping to wall off the paint from a Denver team that destroyed the Jazz inside in Game 1. "I think I'm ready," Fesenko said. "I feel very confident about tonight's game. I might not score 45 points, but I know that I'll bust my ass on defense." Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said that Fesenko should embrace the starting role. "That's what you hope for as a player," Sloan said. "This is about as good a setting as you would want to have an opportunity to play and play well."

DENVER -- The Utah Jazz have lost Mehmet Okur for the remainder of the playoffs. The veteran starting center tore his left Achilles tendon Saturday night when he slipped on a drive to the hole in the second quarter of the Jazz's loss last night to Denver. Okur underwent an MRI on Sunday morning, which revealed the tear. Utah general manager Kevin O'Connor addressed the media and Okur's timetable for recovery.

"The cookie cutter answer is anywhere from three months to start back on the court to four to six months," O'Connor said.

Okur had been suffering from Achilles tendinitis, and prior to Saturday night's game, he received a numbing injection in the Achilles area. O'Connor made a repeated point of saying that the shot had nothing to do with Okur's injury.

"We would never put a player in a compromising position," O'Connor said. "If there was any indication that the shot would've masked anything or done anything like that, we would have never done that. We've never put a game ahead of a player."

The mood at the Jazz's practice Sunday afternoon at the Pepsi Center was glum. Teammates, staff and those who cover the team regard Okur as an accessible, kind player.

The basketball ramifications are also devastating to the squad. How is Utah able to move so fluidly in the half court? It has a lot to do with Okur's shooting prowess from the perimeter. As a threat from beyond the arc, Okur is able to drag opposing bigs out of the paint, where so much of Utah's flex action occurs. Those cuts, back screens and slips will be a lot tougher for Utah to execute with a front line of, say, Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap, or Boozer and Kyrylo Fesenko, none of whom demand attention 23 feet away from the basket.

I recently got my hands on a list of how much money every 2007 NBA second-round pick will be making. It's not the best-kept secret anyway -- the Players' Association distributes these lists to NBA agents. A copy appeared in my inbox (wonderful thing, that inbox) and I have confirmed the basic numbers with others who have access to the same list.

At the time of this list's creation, 12 second-round picks had signed contracts. They are Nick Fazekas (Dallas, 34th pick), Jermareo Davidson (Charlotte, 36th pick), Josh McRoberts (Portland, 37th pick), Kyrylo Fesenko (Utah, 38th pick), Sun Yue (Lakers, 40th pick), Adam Haluska (New Orleans, 43rd pick), Dominic McGuire (Washington, 47th pick), Aaron Gray (Chicago, 49th pick), JamesOn Curry (Chicago, 51st pick), Taurean Green (Portland, 52nd pick), Sammy Mejia (Detroit, 57th pick), D.J. Strawberry (Phoenix, 59th pick).

Here's the fascinating part: they will all make precisely the same amount of money, otherwise known as "the minimum." That's $427,163 this season. What varies between the contracts is how much of that money is guaranteed, and what happens in the second and third years. In the case of Yue, none of the money is guaranteed. Most others have all or most of the first year guaranteed, with a second year team option of $711,517. McGuire has the second year guaranteed, with a third year team option of $825,497.

But there's one exception. One of those dudes will have a WAY bigger contract.

Stop reading here, look at this list, and tell me which one you think it is.

I'm guessing you probably didn't guess it was the Ukrainian quote machine, Kyrylo Fesenko. "Fes" will, according to this list, be making $750,000 in year one, $810,000 in year two, and there's a team option in the third year for $870,000. In addition, the Jazz reportedly forked over a half-million to buy him out of his contract with his European club.

Anyone have access to good historical salary data? Has a second-round pick ever had this much guaranteed money in a rookie contract?

Why is Fesenko worth so much more? Several reasons.

For one thing, he's agile, hard-working, athletic, and extremely big. Watch him play. Seriously. (There's a little highlight collection of some summer league blocks, as well as a coordinated move off the dribble and a putback dunk.)

For another thing, he was not well known. People who have seen him play -- I have seen the DVDs -- are convinced he would have gone much higher if he had been on everybody's radar for longer. So you can make the case that in basketball terms he's a first-round pick, so it's no crime to pay him like one.

For another thing, promising young overseas players with reasonable buyouts always have leverage. If they re-up their deal in Europe, and the European team knows an NBA club is interested, that buyout could get a lot bigger in the future. Certainly the amount the NBA club can pay is capped, but you know the player will have to recoup at least a good chunk of that buyout money from the NBA contract; you can't have a big buyout and then play for the minimum, you know?

One thing I like about seeing that big contract, is that it makes you think the Jazz are committed to Fesenko. As someone who likes his interview style, I hope he'll be around for many years to come.

One day the word "Fesenko" will be like "karaoke." It will be something people go to bars to do for fun. I'm not sure, exactly, what it will be, but it will be entertaining.

Consider that Jazz rookie Kyrylo Fesenko hasn't even set foot in the NBA yet, and already he's the originator of a half-dozen great lines of the summer. Here's one TrueHoop reader Welk spotted on JazzHoops.net, translated from the Russian on SovSport.Ru:

Once during a practice I had to get open to get the ball and put it in the basket. I cut behind the player few times but never got an alley oop, so I was disappointed and went to the coach and said, "Are you sleeping? Or you don't see the court?"

He didn't reply. Later I found out from my agent that it wasn't a coach, but legendary player of "golden Chicago" Ron Harper.

My agent told me: "Nobody has talked to Harper like that before. He has more championship rings than you have birthmarks on your body!"

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune explains why:

Fesenko's agent, Jason Levien, said last week that his client is committed to not throwing away whatever money he makes in the NBA. As part of that, Fesenko asked Levien to find him a car -- and I'm not making this up -- in the $3,000 to $4,000 range.

That would make Fesenko the first player in league history to drive a worse car than the reporters who cover the team. We're wondering if Larry Miller, with seemingly every car dealership in Utah, can help Fesenko find something a little more respectable.

The Jazz are still trying to find a way for him to play in the Rocky Mountain Revue, but the car question seemed far more interesting Monday.

Here was Fesenko's explanation: "I am not actually NBA player right now, and I'm not really good driver. I need something cheap that if I get some problems, it wasn't so bad on my soul."

There is some question if Fesenko is actually licensed to drive. He said he was in Ukraine, but told a story of the first time he got behind the wheel. Somehow he started in a field, but wound up nearly driving off a cliff with his girlfriend in the car.

"Her face like white," he said.

He's a funny guy, too. Asked how he spent practice on the sidelines, Fesenko said he "rode bicycle to Ukraine." Laughter ensued. He spent 40 minutes on a stationary bike and is desperate to play a little 5-on-5.

Levien is here at summer league, and says that just about five hours ago it was all arranged that Fesenko would indeed be allowed to play in the Rocky Mountain Revue. Levien says Fesenko is "so happy!"

It hasn't been announced yet, but agent Jason Levien tells me that his client Kyrylo Fesenko has been traded to the Utah Jazz.

Utah bought Philadelphia's second-round pick to get Fesenko, and Levien feels it is a good home for a player who worked out for 13 teams in 16 days and will be on a plane to Utah tomorrow.

No one knows much about this player, but I watched him on video pretty extensively. He's no joke. He's massive, athletic, and coordinated. I'm happy that he found a team that's excited to have him.

UPDATE: I have talked to both the Jazz and Levien again. Both agree that at this point this trade is not a done deal -- it has not yet been announced by the NBA, and until it has been announced by the NBA, it's unlikely there will be confirmation from the team. Details as they are available.

UPDATE: The Jazz now confirm the trade is official. Per the team it's Fesenko for Herbert Hill plus other considerations.