When Donyell Marshall arrived in Salt Lake City to practice for the first time with his new team, the Utah Jazz, veteran point guard John Stockton approached Marshall, shook his hand and asked, "Where do you want the ball?"

	Marshall has really taken off since becoming a starting forward.

"I just thought that was his way of introducing himself," Marshall said. "But he was dead serious. He asked me again, 'Where do you want the ball?' So I told him. And he gets it there every time."

Welcome to the no-nonsense Jazz, Donyell, a place that Marshall needed to have his game thrive, to have his career find a rebirth, to finally, after six seasons, become the player everybody expected him to be when he came out of UConn.

As he withered in first Minnesota, which drafted him fourth in the 1994 draft, and then to Golden State, where he went for Tom Gugliotta, the rap on Marshall was that he was lazy, lacked the drive to succeed, got by at UConn on talent alone but was not able to take the next step.

Then he came to Salt Lake, where, admittedly, things are done differently than in most other cities in the NBA. It is a place where Karl Malone and John Stockton and Jerry Sloan rule, and everybody that enters their world conforms.

(Well, almost everybody. You've got the occasional OP sighting at the Policeman's Ball, but ever after he attends that function, Officer Polynice makes sure he is at practice the next day, holster in his locker.)

	MARSHALL BY MONTH
	Oct.: 1 game, 4 ppg, 2 rpg Nov.: 14 games, 7 ppg, 4.6 rpg Dec.: 15 games, 11.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg Jan.: 13 games, 18.1 ppg, 9.6 rpg Feb.: 12 games (through Wed.), 18.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg

"I never really had a leader before to show me the way, how to get things done," Marshall explains. "Mully (Chris Mullin) was there, but at that time he wanted to get out of Golden State, as well. I have guys on this team, not just Karl and John that are leaders. Everybody on this team helps me in certain ways, helps me adjust to the system. The leadership on this team, all the veterans, have done a great job of helping us younger players out."

Younger players? Kobe Bryant, Rashard Lewis, Allen Iverson, Jermaine O'Neal and Tracy McGrady are younger players. Marshall, it was pointed out, has been in the league long enough -- seven seasons -- to make him a well-established veteran.

"I'm still young," Marshall says. "I'm 27. I'm at the time when they say you are supposed to play your best basketball. These guys have been where I am. They are just showing me the ropes. To come to an organization like this, to come to a winning organization, they pretty much taught me how to win at this level."

You would figure that other teams would catch on, given the extended success of the Jazz under Malone and Stockton et al. You'd think the Vin Bakers and Shawn Kemps and Derrick Colemans of the world would notice that work, that actually EARNING your $14 billion a season, means more than simply showing up at the arena, eating a pretzel in the locker, missing a few free throws and then going home after a long night at the clubs.

"Their work ethic," Marshall marvels. "Guys don't come in here and complain about going to practice the next day. I've been on teams where guys have played for 16 or 17 years, and after they played 35 or 40 minutes they want to take that next day off practice. Karl and John and these other guys don't do that. Coach makes them come in and practice for a few hours and they do it. And they do it hard."

Now, so does Marshall. And now, not coincidentally, the Jazz once again figure in the picture for the NBA Finals.

Marshall gives them an additional dimension they did not seem to have with Jeff Hornacek. Horny was certainly one of the best shooters in the league, but he did not give Utah an inside presence, and neither, really, did Bryon Russell because he was undersized at the small forward position.

But now, Marshall, at 6-10, gives Utah somebody big on the weak side, away from Malone, that defenses have to worry about. And as an added bonus, he can knock down the 3. Maybe not as regularly as Hornacek, but, hey, who can? He is averaging 13.7 points and seven rebounds, but since the beginning of the new year, since Marshall has been starting (when Russell got hurt), he is averaging 18.8 points and 9.6 rebounds, and those are All-Star numbers.

"I mean, this guy, he is 6-10, long arms, he can hit the three, he can rebound," Sonics guard Brent Barry says in wonderment. "He had numerous 20-rebound nights in Golden State. And to have that guy play the three, and allow Russell to slide to the two, you have a very very difficult matchup for a lot of teams. We have Rashard (Lewis) at 6-10, but he doesn't have the inside game that Donyell has.

"He is helping them play at a level that they really haven't played at for three years, which is scary to say because they were winning 55 or 60 games a year. I think they are the team to beat."

Since Marshall was placed into Utah's starting lineup, the Jazz are 19-4. They are playing the most consistent, strongest basketball of probably any team in the league right now, and they are gearing up for a strong run in the playoffs.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

The Sonics are going to give Nate McMillan a four-year, $12 million commitment, which should give McMillan the juice to get rid of the players who don't comply with his rules (read: Vin Baker and Gary Payton). As good a move as it was for the Dallas Mavericks trading for Juwan Howard, they negated that by signing Vernon Maxwell for the remainder of the season. Remember that whole Dennis Rodman experiment?

The nice thing about Marshall's story is that he seems to have found a place that suits him, which more often than not, this league is about.

He is not the type of player around which to build a team, as they wanted him to be in Minnesota, and in Golden State, to a certain degree.

But he is a terrific complementary player, and on this Utah team, he fits perfectly. He could have gone to Boston or Charlotte or Indiana and not had nearly the same effect or success he has found with the Jazz, but he transitioned seamlessly into his current situation.

"When I came here," Marshall said, "I pretty much sensed something, because this team has been together and they were willing to win and they wanted to play together. When you have that unity, anything can happen."

It helps, of course, to be associated with the Jazz reputation that Stockton and Malone have worked so hard to maintain, a sort of mystique with referees in which a foul by a Utah player is not called the same as it is for other teams.

"It's that Utah thing," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. "I saw the other night, Adam Keefe (one of the players for whom Marshall was traded) trying to pull that (crap) down in Golden State, and he picked up like three fouls in a minute. The refs were like, 'Don't try to pull that (crap) with us.' But in Utah, he would get those calls."

When the Jazz were routing the Sonics recently in the midst of a six-game win streak, Brent Barry went up to Marshall, who had just scored on a swooping wraparound shot to the basket, one that brought back memories of that magnificently graceful shot by Dr. J.

"You guys are so talented and so long," Barry told Marshall. "With Karl and Stock and you, you are hell to play. Pure hell."

"Brent," Marshall said, "I went through six seasons of pure hell to get here."

Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.