Kirk

Snyder

It’s going to be interesting to see if Snyder gets this whole ''life’’ thing figured out, or if he goes the way of J.R. Rider.

“I can play a lot of different spots. Wherever they need me,” said the 6-foot-6 Snyder. “Don’t believe what you read in the papers. I’m bigger than it says.” On Wednesday, the Jazz played an undersized quintet for 31 minutes against Philadelphia, with Snyder spending 20 of his 22 minutes at forward. Carlos Boozer handled the center’s job, while Matt Harpring moved up to Boozer’s slot, with Kris Humphries in relief of them both. Snyder and Gordan Giricek were bumped up to small forward, while Sloan used two point guards - mostly Howard Eisley alongside either Carlos Arroyo or Raul Lopez - in the backcourt. The biggest loser here is Mehmet Okur, while Snyder and Humphries, both first-rounders, get the chance to play. This all goes out the window, of course, when Andrei Kirilenko, Jarron Collins, and Raja Bell get back.

The 26-year-old last played in the NBA during the 2007-08 season, when he was a member of the Timberwolves. Snyder averaged 6.3 points per game for four teams during his NBA career.

Snyder is averaging 3.4 points in 35 games. He’ll see action as a reserve shooting guard.

Snyder could start agian for Smith tonight. “The biggest thing is that I want to do everything right to keep seeing the floor,” Snyder said. “Running the offense and being a good team player and being a good teammate, that’s all I want to concern myself with.”

Snyder, the 16th pick in the 2004 draft, is averaging 3.4 points in 35 games.

He was benched for his last game, but was back in the starting lineup tonight. He hit 4-of-10 shots tonight, and didn’t taunt the Golden St. bench. Lesson learned?

''That’s bush-league,’' Sura said. ''You don’t do that kind of stuff in the NBA. In our last game, he made a racist comment to one of our players (Jon Barry). I’m not a fan.’' No word on what the racist comment might have been, but Snyder was immediately yanked out of the game so he could get Jerry Sloan’s take on his action. We’re guessing Jerry didn’t like it very much.

He made the decision after seeing the videotape of the incident. ''I’m not going to play him the next game,’' Sloan told the Salt Lake City Tribune. ''I watched it on film. I thought it was ridiculous what he did. It wasn’t a casual thing like ‘I was looking up in the stands.’ He went right over to the bench. He wasn’t looking up into the stands. You have to be held accountable for some of those things. To me, it really could have been a serious situation.’' The best part of this whole scenario is that we got another classic Jeff Van Gundy memory out of it. No, it’s not nearly as good as seeing Alonzo Mourning drag him around the court with his leg, but fun nonetheless.

The Hornets stole Snyder and Rasual Butler, as they only had to give up the rights to Roberto Duenas, who has never played for the them. If Snyder improves his attitude and thinks more on the court, he could actually become an important player for the Grizzlies. However, at this point it doesn’t look like he has draft value.