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| Tuesday, October 26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last year: 37-13, tie-first place in Midwest Coach: Jerry Sloan Arena: Delta Center (19,911) Last NBA title: None Record the last 5 years/NBA rank: 278-100 (1st)
Outlook By Michael C. Lewis Basketball News After blowing homecourt advantage in the postseason by losing half of its final 10 games of the regular season and meekly leaving the playoffs with nobody so glorious as Michael Jordan holding the door, the Jazz has come to offer several explanations for its most disappointing campaign since 1995. None of them is age. Yet that is the explanation offered by everybody else, who saw the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers make the Jazz look as hopeless in the playoffs as Andy Griffith in a nightclub. For as many times as it had been counted out of championship contention simply because of the dates on its players' driver's licenses, the Jazz had never looked so bad. "It seemed to me we had guys start going in separate directions when things got tough, and I hadn't seen that before," says coach Jerry Sloan. "Everybody was worried about themselves. Nobody was worried about the team. I guess you could say we had an 'I' problem." It should come as no surprise, however, that the Jazz has not abandoned its title aspirations, futile as they might appear to anybody else. Even though the team's stars -- John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek and Karl Malone --are all closing fast on 40, Utah believes that a little more togetherness, a little less hectic of a schedule and a new (if not exactly top-of-the-line) center will help it turn skeptics into astounded believers yet again. "This is a new year and a new time," says Malone, "and we'll go from here."
Point guard Certainly the heart is willing-Stockton signed a deal in the offseason to play two more seasons for $22 million-but is the flesh? "Hopefully, they only want to say those things at the start of the season," says Stockton, "and at the end of the season, they say, 'Ah, I've been fooled again.' That's kind of the goal." Entering the final year of his contract, Eisley remains one of the most valuable backups in the league, especially because the Jazz needs him to not only spell Stockton at the point but play shooting guard alongside him in its small lineup. The team remains high on Vaughn, too; he enters the final year of his contract after having averaged nearly 20 points a game in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league.
Shooting guard The Jazz had hoped to re-sign Shandon Anderson and use him as a starter so it could bring the 36-year-old Hornacek and his surgically repaired knee off the bench to keep the wear-and-tear to a minimum. But Anderson signed with the Houston Rockets, leaving the Jazz with Hornacek and rookie Quincy Lewis at this position, and perhaps Bryon Russell and Eisley offering periodic help away from their natural spots. That does not appear to be a terribly promising way to make a run at the championship, yet the Jazz seems to be crossing its fingers and praying for the best. "This is who we are," says Sloan. "Hopefully, somebody will buckle down and play harder." Somebody had better. Hornacek is coming off his worst year as a pro -- his shooting percentage and scoring average were his lowest in years -- and rookies picked in the middle of the first round generally are not impact players on championship contenders.
Small forward The 6-7 Russell averaged 12.4 points and 5.3 rebounds a game while shooting nearly 80 percent from the free throw line-all career highs -- and making 35 percent of his 3-pointers. He is the team's best perimeter defender and is versatile enough to play at shooting guard. At 28 years old, he also is young enough that his legs can handle nearly 40 minutes a game. Veteran Adam Keefe is the backup, but he is often plagued by nagging injuries and has limited quickness and shooting range that gives him trouble playing away from the basket. At 6-9, he can play inside, though, which allows the Jazz to use him at power forward in its small lineup.
Power forward The difficulties might come with depth, although with Malone playing 40 minutes every night, that probably isnt the team's biggest concern. The Jazz signed 6-10 Pete Chilcutt to give it a little versatility -- Chilcutt shoots nearly 40 percent from 3-point range -- and has 6-8 rookie Torraye Braggs back from a season in Europe hoping to fashion himself into the second coming of Malone. But nothing aside from a devastating injury to Malone would require the Jazz to use either of them more than cursorily at this position, and that by itself assures the Jazz of remaining a contender in the Midwest Division.
Center Will it work? If not, the season at least will be entertaining. Polynice has done and said all the right things since arriving from Seattle, but he carries with him a reputation for disagreeable behavior that generally doesn't play well in Utah. His ability to rebound and occasionally score certainly will be a welcome addition on the floor, but nobody knows what might happen in the locker room if things start to go bad. As for Ostertag, he arrived at camp reportedly in better shape than ever -- insert fat joke here -- and with a new number, 39 (he allowed Polynice to have No. 0.). None of that, however, should lead fans to expect Ostertag to be much better.
Coaching Nobody else has been a head coach with his current team longer than Sloan, who enters his 12th season in Utah with three of his four assistants (Phil Johnson, Gordon Chiesa and Dave Fredman) having been with him for at least a decade. And while the Jazz's old-school approach might be a problem for a team loaded with uppity rookies, Sloan has Stockton, Malone and Hornacek to help enforce his ideas about how to play the game. Material from Basketball News.Visit their web site at http://www.basketballnews.com |