Quick-Post: Alec Burks ends up in Utah, where there is no music.

Predictions about former CU superstar Alec Burks slipping out of the lottery were wrong.  While clubhouse favorites Milwaukee and Charlotte indeed decided to pass on the talented wing, the Utah Jazz weren't about to let a player of his caliber slip past them.  With the 12th pick of the NBA draft, they grabbed Burks.

Nice suit, dude.  Good luck in Utah!  From: the SLC Tribune

Alec was pretty happy with the development, as the SLC Tribune quoted him as saying “I’m crazy hyped, I got so much excitement. I finally realized my dream, so it’s a great thing.”

While it's not as bad a destination as ending up in Charlotte would've been, the Jazz aren't exactly a team ready to take off.  Had this been the Jazz of 2-3 years ago, with a quality point-guard in Derron Williams and quality coach in Jerry Sloan to nurture Burks through the inevitable growing pains, then I'd be all for it.  Instead, this is a franchise definitely on a rebuilding kick.  In addition, many Jazz fans will see Burks as "not Jimmer" for the foreseeable future, as the notably Mormon SG out of BYU ended up in Sacramento of all places.  It's kind of an awkward situation all around.

But that's the point of the lottery: good players end up in bad spots.  By default good teams don't end up in the lottery, and the situation Burks found himself in this morning could've been a lot worse.  Sure, a franchise like Milwaukee, who's definitely on the rise, would've been a choice destination, but Utah will do just fine for the time being.  The cool thing is that he's in the same division as the Denver Nuggets, so at least he'll be making a decent number of stops through the Mile High in the near future. 

Either way, much congratulations go to Alec for achieving his dream.  Here's to a long and fruitful NBA career for CU's own #10!

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Notes

Utah also selected big Enes Kanter in the first round.  They grabbed the big man with the 3rd overall selection.  Kanter had attended Kentucky, but never got to play as he was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for accepting $33k from a European basketball team a few years back.  While he's talented, he's been out of competitive basketball for a year, which is never a good sign.  He'll need some time to get back his game; luckily, for Utah at least, they have some front court depth to prop him up for a while.

FYI, Alec will be getting paid to the tune of $1.7 Million next year.  If you're going to have to live in Utah, you might as well be making bank to do it.

BTW, I finally got my answer as to why Burks was slipping in certain mock-drafts.  Listening to the Chauncey Billups interview on 104.3 last night, Chauncey postulated that the injured shoulder that kept Alec out of the first few workouts would end up requiring surgery.  Finally, a solid reason why Alec was moving down, not up, draft boards.  (The consternation over his shooting was horse-shit, he was always going to be a slash-first guard in the NBA).  Despite these concerns, he still ended up in the lottery, which was his goal, and will start his NBA career on a high note.