RENO, Nev. -- It's even worse than the uncertainty in the Utah Jazz camp. Worse than not knowing if this, once and for all, is the historic October as the final tandem lesson from Stockton-to-Malone on how to arrive ready to play. Worse than only being able to speculate how that youth movement will turn out at point guard now that 37-year-old Mark Jackson has been brought in to back up 40-year-old John Stockton. Worse than even the frustration of a cloudy timeline on how long kidney donor Greg Ostertag will be given to regain full strength before coach Jerry Sloan again tries to make 'Tag a living trachea donor.

The problem today is tomorrow. The future has started for the Jazz, a continuation of the process that began with success a season ago. Only the future is a holdout.

	Karl Malone, left, may have to chase Kareem's scoring record elsewhere next season.

Small forward Andrei Kirilenko, an all-rookie choice in 2001-02, is here, except that he's not where he wants to be. A sprained ankle suffered in summer league cost him that competition and, later, all but three games of the World Championships while representing Russia. The injury no longer seems to be an issue deep into the second week of camp, but his timing is off, making for a slow start.

Point guard Raul Lopez, the first-round pick from 2001, is done for what would have been his rookie season because of a second blown knee. The pressing question now, beyond how this kid didn't end up a Clipper, is how much Lopez can learn as the projected successor to Stockton while just watching from the sidelines.

Center Curtis Borchardt, a 2002 first-round pick who was acquired from Orlando, is out indefinitely -- probably at least months -- because of surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot. He left Stanford following his junior season and considerable debate, but he should have skipped the NBA and headed straight to Vegas for the real money after the way his gamble in coming out of college paid off. If Borchardt had stayed in school and then added this injury to an already-extensive medical chart, his stock would have plummeted faster than Martha Stewart's.

All of which would be critical enough for most any team, especially one walking the tightrope between developing prospects while still trying to maintain its playoff standing. However, this is a critical season for the Jazz. It's even more important than when the transition to the future began last season, with rookies Kirilenko and Jarron Collins both starting and second-year guard DeShawn Stevenson getting 16.9 minutes per game, because this is the first time that life after Stockton and Karl Malone has become imminent.

For once, it's not the usual overreaching from skeptics incorrectly predicting the demise of Stockton-to-Malone just because their great-grandchildren started collecting Social Security the other day. (And, for the record, the two showed up at camp in great shape, another Jazz tradition, with Malone boasting about his ridiculously low body-fat percentage.) If this is the downhill, someone had better give them a stronger push because gravity isn't generating much speed. What has changed is the reality that Malone is about to become a free agent for the first time and had already wondered last season about playing elsewhere and that Stockton is about to become a free agent and needed time this past summer before deciding he wasn't ready for retirement.

Both could be back next season, especially with the Jazz wincing at the prospect of Malone going for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record in another uniform. But for the first time, considering both had contracts for 2002-03 even while their futures were in doubt, the possibility of life after the great tandem is a paper reality, not just speculation.

That's why this season is so critical.

That's why Kevin O'Connor, the vice president of basketball operations, said, "I'd like to see a couple people emerge as consistent NBA playmakers. Because some day John and Karl are not going to be here."

	"	I'd like to see a couple people emerge as consistent NBA playmakers. Because some day John and Karl are not going to be here. "
		— Kevin O'Connor

That's why aiming for the future this season is different than what started in admirable fashion last season. Then, it was a chance for the kids to step forward as consistent contributors. Now, it's more about an urgency, relatively speaking, to see who will become the next leaders and the next starters.

It doesn't help that the growth is stunted by the presence of Malone, especially, and Stockton. Both have accepted this as a transition period -- with a compromise from ownership that veterans like Jackson, Matt Harpring and Calbert Cheaney would be acquired so that the two Hall of Famers in waiting wouldn't be left to stand on the deck of a sinking ship -- and have taken an active role in supporting and promoting the kids. Indeed, Malone's greatest frustration in 2001-02 was the lack of effort and the "me first" instinct of some veterans concerned about their stats with free agency approaching, not the on-court mistakes of youth. But that doesn't change the reality that no one dared to challenge the standing of the cornerstones and that everyone is still deferring to Stockton and Malone. In other words, the next leaders will be slow to develop.

"They're reluctant to step ahead of that," Sloan said of the prospects.

The good news is that Collins is here, encouraging beyond the fact that at least someone made it this far in good health. One of the success stories of last season, when he went from a bad showing in summer league and an odds-on favorite to be an odd-man out when final cuts were made to starting 68 times, Collins is even better in his second camp with better conditioning, better shooting, better confidence.

There just isn't better versatility on the frontline. The presence of Borchardt, Collins' former Stanford teammate, would have allowed Collins to play more backup power forward in addition to center, but the bad feet took care of that. Maybe the other new guy inside will spring Collins. John Amaechi, allegedly on the Jazz last season after signing as a free agent, only averaging 10.9 minutes a game and spending the entire first-round playoff loss to the Kings on the bench, is so far much improved. It is an especially important development in Utah since Ostertag, a constant source of frustration for Sloan no matter the level of conditioning, will need more time to regain his strength after donating a kidney to his sister in June.

Speaking of encouraging days ahead, Ostertag's sister is getting better, too. The Jazz have theirs, too, just not right in front at the moment, leaving the real building for the future in the future.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.