Jazz guard Almond voted No. 1 rookie shooter

By Linda Hamilton
Deseret Morning News
The Utah Jazz figured they were drafting a good shooter when they selected Morris Almond of Rice University with the No. 25 pick in the June NBA Draft.
The 2007 draft class agrees.
In balloting released Friday by NBA.com, which conducted voting among the 44 rookies who attended last week's NBA Rookie Photo Shoot, Almond was voted the No. 1 shooter in this year's draft class by his peers.
Not every rookie responded to every question, according to NBA.com, but Almond received nine votes to runners-up Demetris Nichols of the New York Knicks (eight) and Marco Belinelli (five) of the Golden State Warriors in answer to the poll question, "Which NBA rookie is the best shooter?"
Others with more than one vote were Portland's Taurean Green (4), Dallas' Nick Fazekas (3), Detroit's Arron Afflalo (2), Seattle's Kevin Durant (2) and Washington's Nick Young (2). Nine others received one vote each.
"Coach (Jerry Sloan) is a big believer on guys making shots, not just shooting them. Hopefully (Almond) will be the best maker of shots," said Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor.
O'Connor said he spent Friday in meetings and carefully reviewing a lease agreement for Jazz fall training camp. He said the site of that camp could be released in about two weeks.
In the NBA.com Rookie Survey, Almond also tied with Belinelli, Los Angeles Clipper Jared Jordan and Detroit's Rodney Stuckey for sixth place in the "Which rookie do you know the least about?" category, won by Milwaukee choice Yi Jianlian of China with seven votes, and got one vote in the "Which rookie is being the most overlooked" column won by Washington's Young with six votes.
Almond said in a rookie blog (freedarko.blogspot.com/fd-embedded-rookie-dispatches.html) that his face was sore from holding "unnatural" facial expressions wanted by the photographers for so long during the day-long NBA rookie photo shoot July 27 in New Jersey.
Seattle's Durant, the No. 2 pick in the June draft, is the overwhelming choice of his peers to win the 2007-08 Rookie of the Year award over No. 1 pick Greg Oden of Portland, 23-5. The rookies also said Durant would play in more career all-star games than anyone else in the class, 24-14 over Oden, but they said Atlanta pick Al Horford is the most ready of anyone for the NBA game, 13-9-8 over Durant and Oden.
Clipper choice Al Thornton was named the most athletic of the rookie class 14-7 over Washington's Young. Best defender went to Minnesota's Corey Brewer 17-11 over Oden, and Memphis pick Mike Conley was chosen the best playmaker 19-11 over Atlanta's Acie Law IV.
Full survey results are available at www.nba.com/rookies/survey_0708.html.
BWBA: Unrestricted free-agent center Rafael Araujo, who spent last season with the Jazz and played collegiately at BYU, has spent much of this week participating in Basketball Without Borders Americas in his native Brazil, along with fellow NBA graduates of the Brazilian national team Nene of Denver, Anderson Varejao of Cleveland and Leandro Barbosa of Phoenix.
BWBA is sponsored by the NBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the Brazilian Basketball Federation (CBB). Professional players and coaches work with several countries' top under-19 players selected by FIBA and local associations, teaching them basketball and life skills and motivation. Six other NBA players and a number of coaches were also on the trip.

Not bad for a 2nd rounder