SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The national player of the year is coming to Utah.
The Jazz obtained Trey Burke in a draft night deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who selected the Michigan point guard with the ninth pick in exchange for Utah’s two first-rounders.
Burke is a pure pick-and-roll player who was the consensus national player of the year as a sophomore after leading the Wolverines to the national championship game.
As part of the deal, the Jazz took UCLA swingman Shabazz Muhammad at No. 14 and Louisville center and Senegal native Gorgui Dieng at No. 21 for the Timberwolves.
A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press that the Jazz sent pick Nos. 14 and 21 to Minnesota for Burke. The person requested anonymity because the deal has not been officially announced.
The Jazz missed out on the playoffs for the second time in three years last season and have a young core of players that includes Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors that should benefit from the arrival of Burke.
The Jazz have just six players on the roster with guaranteed contracts for 2013-14, none of them point guards.
Burke won the Bob Cousy Award given annually to the nation’s best point guard. He averaged 18.6 points and 6.7 assists last season when he led the Wolverines to their first Final Four since 1993.
Burke, who is small for an NBA guard at 6-foot-1, is known as a playmaker and often played his best in big games. He took care of the ball with a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio while crafting a reputation as one of college basketball’s finest passers.
Scouts say Burke is most proficient running the pick-and-roll, a staple of the Jazz offense since the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
The crowd watching the draft at Energy Solutions Arena stood and cheered when the trade was announced.
In the first draft with general manager Dennis Lindsey at the helm, the Jazz made a bold move to fill a need. Lindsey, who was the assistant general manager for the San Antonio Spurs for five seasons before moving to the Jazz last season, brought nearly 70 players into Salt Lake City for workouts in the weeks before the draft in an unprecedented commitment to pre-draft, customized evaluations.
Burke, however, was not one of those who made a visit to Utah.
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AP Sports Writers Jon Krawczynski and Arnie Stapleton contributed.
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