RealGM

BOSTON — Back from a European scouting trip, Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor caught up with the team Monday in Boston — and brought back a report on Utah's two second-round draft choices from last June, 7-foot-1 Croatian center Ante Tomic and 6-8 forward Tadija Dragicevic.

Neither, it seems, is likely to be playing in the NBA next season, so don't expect to see either any time soon.

But Tomic, for one, harbors hopes.

And if he's to have a shot, it's abundantly clear where he should consider spending more time.

That would be a weight room.

"He wants to play, some day," O'Connor said. "That's what we talked about, and ... that's something he'd like to do."

But, O'Connor added, "It's best served to say he needs to get stronger to play in the NBA. We talked about that, and we talked about what he was doing to do that."

O'Connor described Tomic, who weighs about 235 pounds, as a high-post big man whose best attribute is his passing — and who is not a shot-blocker.

The Jazz GM watched his Zagreb CO team fall 84-80 to Dragicevic's club, BC Red Star, over the weekend in Zagreb, Croatia.

Tomic had seven points and nine rebounds; Dragicevic, bothered by a knee injury, scored 11.

One of Dragicevic's American teammates, by the way, is guard Andre Owens, who played 23 games for the Jazz during the 2005-06 season. The other is Lawrence Roberts, another former NBA player.