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Learning never ends for Pavlovic
By Phil Miller
The Salt Lake Tribune
LOS ANGELES -- Like a traffic cop with his lights flashing, Jerry Sloan pulled over Sasha Pavlovic on Wednesday, blocking the rookie's path to the bench to explain what he had done wrong. This time, the quick critique-tutorial was about defense.
"He's guarding Stacey Augmon, [who] takes him right down on the blocks. Sasha lets him get there and then he starts playing defense. That's too late," Sloan explained later. "I told him he can save a lot of embarrassment by playing a guy early, keeping him out of those situations where you have to commit a foul."
Sasha listened to the advice with no expression -- it's his standard-issue look, on or off the court -- then nodded and took his seat. Lesson No. 5,728 had been received and acknowledged.
"He tries to help me," Pavlovic said. "Jerry is teaching me, and I'm trying hard to learn."
He's learned a lot in the past seven months, an NBA crash-course that has frequently frustrated Pavlovic, occasionally overwhelmed him, but mostly exhilarated the 20-year-old kid from the shores of the Adriatic Sea.
Pavlovic is 10 days from the end of his first NBA season, and the journey, he said, has been everything he imagined.
"I love it here. I love everything about it, especially basketball," Pavlovic said on the eve of the Jazz's 77th game, tonight in Staples Center against the Clippers (6:30 p.m. MDT, FSN). "In beginning, it was harder -- new people, new language, different basketball. Everything was different for me in NBA. But one month after, I was comfortable."
The Jazz are gradually becoming more comfortable with his game, too. After occasional bursts early in the season that hinted at the talent the Jazz had drafted -- Pavlovic made a 14-point splash on Opening Night, for example -- the rookie settled into a midseason funk not uncommon for someone so young, particularly someone 6,000 miles from home.
He scored only 39 points in all of February, but swears his confidence never wavered. "I play bad, and don't get minutes," Pavlovic said. "I know I [can] play better."
He has, and as a result his minutes have increased. Pavlovic has played more than 20 minutes three times in the past five games, giving him more confidence, which in turn produces even more time.
"Sasha has played much better in . . . maybe the last month," Sloan said. "He's worked real hard in practice. He's becoming a lot more assertive, and that's made him better. He's having some positive things happen to him on the floor."
Good signs are there at both ends of the floor, but Sloan especially has noticed the defense. Despite occasional lapses, like the one Augmon exposed, the coach is pleased with Pavlovic's effort. "He's going after the ball a little more, getting a couple of rebounds. He's made some defensive plays," Sloan said. "That's how you get minutes."
And once on the floor, Pavlovic is fitting in to the Jazz's offense better now, too. The rookie is slowly solving the major riddle of Sloan's offense -- when to shoot and when to pass -- and is more confident now about stepping up and hitting the shots he is supposed to.
"I just have to be smart," Pavlovic said. "I know what a shot is now. I know how not to get two minutes, two fouls. I am better player than before."
He's gradually becoming a more comfortable Utahn, too. Pavlovic said Salt Lake City reminds him a great deal of his hometown of Bar, a city of 50,000 on the Adriatic coast in Montenegro, and that helps his adjustment. So does the presence of his girlfriend Vanya -- sister of Suns' forward Zarko Cabarkapa -- who moved to Utah with Pavlovic.
"She's been here the whole time. That's what's helped me the most," said Pavlovic, who has lived away from home to play basketball since he turned 15. "She likes it here. She just needs me to be around her, and I need her to be around me."
It has also helped having Andrei Kirilenko around, since the third-year Russian has gone through the same adjustment that Pavlovic has lived this season.
"He's pretty good guy. He's having good year," Kirilenko said. Early in the season, Pavlovic seemed homesick -- "It was like nostalgia, 'I want to go home, I miss my friends,' " Kirilenko said -- but that passed by Christmas. Now Pavlovic's focus is on basketball, and improving his game.
"You can see he is better," Kirilenko said. "The thing about the Jazz, everybody gets chance. He gets to play and improve because Jerry Sloan gives everybody a chance."
His chances will multiply as he learns, Sloan said, and develops the toughness that the Jazz coach values.
"Those are things he has to continue to learn. What does he do when a guy comes at him, [and] buries his head into Sasha's chest?" Sloan said. "He reaches out and fouls. Dealing with that is something he needs to pick up. You have to understand, it's not an every-once-in-awhile deal. It's every time."
Time is something the 20-year-old has. He plans to use that time to build a career that goes far beyond his 5-points-per-game rookie season.
"I can do better. I need to be stronger and work on my legs on defense. I must move better," Pavlovic said. "I'll be better player next year and year after that. It was same in European League -- start and learn and get better. Then you play more."
pmiller@sltrib.com
Aleksandar Pavlovic
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