Teenagers and Ping Pong

MINNEAPOLIS – Jazz rookie center Kosta Koufos, the second-youngest player currently in the NBA behind only Golden State’s Anthony Randolph, turned 20 years old last Tuesday.
“He’s a good kid,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “The guys were on him pretty good for being a rookie, but he handles it very well.”
Sloan has coached a handful of teenaged draft picks in recent years, also including current Washington Wizard DeShawn Stevenson, current Cleveland Cavalier Sasha Pavlovic, current Toronto Raptor Kris Humphries and current Jazz starting shooting guard C.J. Miles.
He wouldn’t rule out doing it again in the future, either.
“We had C.J., who was really young – and look at him,” Sloan said of Miles, who made his NBA debut as an 18-year-old in 2005. “He’s grown up, he’s gotten a lot better.”

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Sloan, by the way, had what may have been the quote of the night following the Jazz’s come-from-behind win at Minnesota on Wednesday night.
It dealt with Utah’s lousy start, something quite commonplace on the road for the Jazz this season.
“They had us looking like Ping Pong balls, the way they were knocking us around to start with,” he said. “Our heads were turning everywhere to see who hit us. You know, we weren’t ready for that. Couldn’t get over screens. But once we started execution, they had a little trouble. They had a little trouble getting over a couple of screens.”
And the table, ultimately, was owned by the Jazz.

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