First, a prediction:

Karl Malone didn't leave Utah on great terms, clashing again with owner Larry Miller and parting with particular disdain for general manager Kevin O'Connor, but he will finish his career with the Jazz in the name of symbolism. Malone felt unwanted in the end, except he has grown too much the last few years and desires a happy ending too much to let the bitterness last into a jersey-retirement ceremony and beyond. A full-circle closing would hold great emotional value, even for a single final game before quitting in a pre-arranged deal with Miller, and allow him to say he retired with the Jazz.

Back here in the present, though, this will be a Jazz team unlike any other since the mid-1980s, minus Malone and John Stockton. There is coach Jerry Sloan, the part of the foundation who did return, and Matt Harpring, coming off a very successful 2002-03 season, and still-rising Andrei Kirilenko and ... um ... well ...

But there is a future. As far as recognition factor, there won't be one, but as far as hope goes, it exists. That's more than a consolation prize for next season given the way some franchises had to start over when their stars left.

	Curtis Borchardt is one of the fresh faces of the new-look Jazz.

Corey Maggette might add a scoring punch, depending on whether the Los Angeles Clippers match the offer sheet. Aleksandar Pavlovic was added in the draft. The wings are set.

The Jazz have a question mark at point guard.

The Jazz have a question mark at power forward.

Whoa. And the sun won't come up tomorrow.

(The Jazz have a question at point guard.)

(The Jazz have a question at power forward.)

(Just had to say it again to make it seem real.)

In the biggest "What next?" issues in Salt Lake City, none, of course, will be watched closer than who will replace the legends. Not just because of the inevitable comparisons, but because it's also the two places where the Jazz will be unproven at the start of 2003-04, given that Greg Ostertag has proven a lot as the center. Insert punch line here.

Potential successors are in place. They're also coming fast. Except maybe that's because they're on gurneys.

Life after Stockton and Malone was actually supposed to begin with Stockton and Malone in a 2002-03 season scheduled to be a transition phase for the team preparing for the next generation. Everything was in place. The plan for Utah's youth: log minutes, maybe even start and learn from the best.

Instead, Jarron Collins had his right knee dropped into a blender, Curtis Borchardt suffered -- surprise! -- a stress fracture in his right foot, and Raul Lopez tore a ligament in his right knee. Borchardt and Lopez, the two rookies, didn't even make it to summer league. At least Collins, the second-year center, got as far as Dec. 12, at which point he tore two ligaments and the cartilage that absorbs weight and stabilizes the joint.

In the end, in a season when Lopez was projected to be the backup point guard and Borchardt and Collins would have provided options behind Malone at power forward and possibly instead of Ostertag at center, the only service was 22 games from Collins.

"We've got guys in their 40s playing night in and night out and guys in their 20s on the sideline," Borchardt said. "I think one expression Karl used was, 'They just don't build 'em like they used to, do they, John?' "

Construction having become an overriding issue. Lopez has had two surgeries on the same knee. Borchardt has had so many problems with stress fractures in his right foot --the same problem ended his freshman and sophomore seasons at Stanford -- that his toes have ulcers. His father, Jon, spent nine seasons on the offensive line for the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks without a broken bone or surgery.

And that's not the $800,000 of it. Lopez spent $1.6 million to buy out his contract with Real Madrid in his native Spain, the Jazz picking up the other $350,000 as limited by NBA rules. Utah signed him after the second injury indicated the potential of a chronic problem, partly feeling it had made a commitment to him originally and, in the more practical reason, to be able to pick the doctors for the surgery and then oversee the rehabilitation to protect its investment.

The Jazz selected Lopez in the 2001 draft ahead of Tony Parker, wanting a player who would stay overseas to save a salary and knowing Parker was ready to come from France, so there's only everything riding on his recovery. Utah is into Lopez for three years of guaranteed money and hasn't even gotten a practice player out of the deal yet. Meanwhile, Parker helped San Antonio to the title.

	“	The question is 'Can we get (Lopez) ready to play Tony Parker and play him to a standstill?' That's the question. And that's the reality. ”
		— Gordon Chiesa, Jazz assistant coach

"Here's the reality," said Gordon Chiesa, an assistant coach who has worked with Lopez. "There is Tony Parker of the beloved San Antonio Spurs -- and I say that with all kidding aside, because they do a great job -- and the question is 'Can we get (Lopez) ready to play Tony Parker and play him to a standstill?' That's the question. And that's the reality."

Borchardt was likewise a risk acquisition, officially picked by Orlando but quickly traded to Utah. He went from the foot injuries his first two seasons at Stanford to rocketing up the draft charts as a junior, to having teams that needed big men back away, to getting the same three-year committment from the Jazz ... to getting hurt again in practice for summer league.

He was on crutches for 3½ months, in a cast for six weeks and kept away from basketball drills until the first round of the playoffs. Management stressed patience, as it was gladly willing to trade a lost rookie season for the extended rest and hopefully a healed foot. It was the Zydrunas Ilgauskas Plan -- the Cavaliers last season kept the training wheels on their center with brittle feet and were rewarded with 81 games, 17.2 points per game and an All-Star appearance in February.

Collins, meanwhile, is the best to handle a setback. He played four years at Stanford, so his game is developed better than a lot of second-year players, a primary reason he has come so far as the 53rd pick in the 2001 draft. His game is based more on intelligence and fundamentals than the physical aspect, so any long-term deficit because of injury won't impact him as much as Lopez, a quick-shifting ball handler.

All three are on the Jazz's summer-league team and on schedule for training camp and, therefore, a prominent role during the season. A future that comes, ready or not.

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