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Show Jazz Awaiting Draft The Utah Jazz will have two of the first 27 selections in the 1981 NBA College Draft, which will take place on June 9 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel In New York. The Jazz will conduct its draft proceedings locally in the Salt Palace beginning at 10 a.m. MDT. The local draft proceedings in the Salt Palace will be open to the public and free of charge. Utah has Houston's first round draft choice as the result of a trade for Slick Watts with the Houston Rockets in 1978. The, Jazz' own first round draft choice was traded to Seattle in 1978 for Slick Watts. The Jazz' first round slection will be the 13th choice in the first round. Houston tied with Kansas City by having identical regular season records of 40-42. Detroit has Kansas City's first round draft selection, as the result of compensation for the Kings' signing free agent Leon Douglas prior to the start of the 1980-81 season. The tie between the Jazz and Detroit was broken by virtue of a draw between the two teams by NBA Commissioner Lawrence F. O'Brien in New York on April 30. Utah was also indirectly involved in another draw. The Jazz and Cleveland finished with the same 28-54 regular season record. Seattle has Utah's pick and Chicago has Cleveland's pick. Seattle lost the draw, meaning the Supersonics will pick fifth in the first round and Chicago will choose fourth in the first round. The Jazz will then have the fourth draft choice in all even rounds of the 10-round NBA draft and Cleveland will choose fourth in all odd number rounds of the draft. "We think that we can get a player, who will hopefully be able to come in and start for us with our first round pick," said Utah Jazz General Manager Frank Layden. "We are also looking to get a quality player in the second round who should have a good chance to make our roster next season," Layden added. Utah does not have a third round draft choice, as it was traded to Los Angeles for Ron Bo"one in 1979. The Jazz then has its remaining draft choices which will be in fourth or fifth choice in the remaining rounds of the draft. The first round of the 1981 NBA College Draft is as follows: 1 . Dallas, 2. Detroit, 3. New Jersey, 4. Chicago, 5. Seattle, 6. Atlanta, 7. Kansas City, 8. San Diego, 9. Dallas, 10. New Jersey, 11. Washington, 12. Detroit, 13. Utah, 14. Indiana, 15. Portland, 16. Portland. 17. New York, 18. New Jersey, 19. Los Angeles, 20. Phoenix, 21. Milwaukee. 22. Philadelphia. 23. Boston. |