Jazz singin' the blues

By Joe Kaiser Sports Central Columnist

Sorry, Utah Jazz fans, the music has ended. Your team's best years are now in the rear-view mirror. The John Stockton/Karl Malone connection isn't what it used to be, and soon it too will be a distant memory.

What a shame. Oh, what could have been.

If you couldn't win a championship when Stockton and Malone were in their prime, what exactly do you have to be excited about this season? Malone, 39, and Stockton, 40, still can play, but not to the level they maintained throughout the late-'80s and '90s.

It's obvious to the common fan. It's apparent to journalists and NBA writers.

Unfortunately, it seems, the only people who didn't take notice of their diminishing skills are the higher-ups in your organization. Maybe if they had, they would have worked on building a future for the team. Instead, year in and year out, they put all their hope in the seemingly age-less duo.

In the past, it didn't matter. The younger and less injury-prone Stockton and Malone could make up for a lack of talent across the team's roster. Malone would pour in 25 points per game, grab 10 rebounds, and get a steal or two. Stockton would score his 15 points, dish out nine or 10 assists, and add a few thefts of his own.

But finally, 20 years of basketball have caught up to Stockton and Malone. The hard fouls, back-to-back games, quick-paced play of today's game, and long grind of the NBA season have become more than Utah's greatest guard-forward combination can handle.

Malone, in fact, just was held scoreless for the first time in his career on Sunday at Seattle. In 15 minutes, he went 0-7 from the field with three turnovers.

This year, like every season in the past decade, there simply isn't a semblance of a talented roster to make up for Stockton and Malone's new found deficiencies.

Who's backing up Stockton this season? Here's a hint: it isn't a young up-and-coming point guard. It isn't Dan Dickau, the Stockton wannabe who graduated in 2002 from Stockton's same school, Gonzaga. Nope, your team drafted him and traded the flashy college star to Atlanta over the summer.

Give up?

It's Mark Jackson, the 37-year-old, 15-year NBA veteran whose career is coming to a close in a hurry. He was waived by the league's worst team, the Denver Nuggets, in the offseason after playing with the New York Knicks over the past two seasons. Jackson, like Stockton, is old.

The team has no vision for the future. Its philosophy -- compete today, worry about tomorrow later.

It's gets even worse at the shooting guard position, where the Jazz have laid their hope in DeShawn Stevenson, a fourth-year player out Washington Union High School in Fresno, Calif. Stevenson is not an NBA player. While other kids who came to the NBA straight from high school have showed steady improvement in recent years -- players like Tracy McGrady, Al Harrington, Kobe Bryant, and Jermaine O'Neill -- Stevenson has showed little. He is a terrible shooter from the perimeter, tentative on offense, and a non-factor defensively.

His backup is no one who will knock your socks off, either. It's Calbert Cheaney. Cheaney is lucky to even have a job, but for some reason, Utah has given him one. After a tremendous college career at Indiana, he has proved to be a terrible NBA player. His finest asset, shooting, has even abandoned him since joining the pro ranks in 1993 with Washington. Now 31, Cheaney is nobody to build the future around, and probably won't be in the league a year or two from now.

At power forward, there is absolutely nobody on the team who can play behind Malone. Nobody. You'd think that having all those years to draft a young physical forward to learn behind the Mailman, the Jazz would have done so. Sorry, it didn't happen. The only players who could even have the chance to play at the four behind Malone are 31-year-old journeyman John Amaechi, 6-9 perimeter shooter Scott Padgett, and second-year player Jarron Collins.

Collins is the only one of the three with any real chance to start in the league on an every-game basis. But at 6-11, his future may be at center.

Current center Greg Ostertag is one of the worst in the league. He's a liability on offense and can't run the court at all due to his tremendous size. Behind him is Curtis Borchardt, a tall and lanky rookie from Stanford who is one of the team's few long-term prospects.

Borchardt joins Collins, his teammate in college at Stanford, as the team's future in the front court. The only other young players capable of becoming stars in the future are forwards Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko.

Kirilenko is the team's future. The 21-year-old from Russia is very athletic, stands 6-9, has long arms, and is quick off the dribble. He's also a consistent shooter from the perimeter who has often been compared to Tom Chambers.

Harpring is a versatile player who joined the team as a free agent in the offseason from Philadelphia. Ideally, he would be a perfect complimentary player coming off the bench, but nevertheless, is a solid contributor. He's an excellent shooter in his fifth year out of Georgia Tech.

The time is near when the Stockton/Malone era comes to a close in the land of the Great Salt Lake. Had the Jazz prepared themselves years earlier, the potential loss of the two wouldn't serve as such a hard blow to the organization. But the fact is that they didn't do what they had to do, and it will hurt them -- significantly.

Two years from now, the Jazz could very easily be a team fielding a lineup led by Kirilenko. Hopefully, they will have learned from their mistakes during the Stockton/Malone era well enough to build a team around him.

Until then, hold on to your lucky rabbit's foot, Jazz fans. Rub it well, put it in a safe place, and take it out every June. The draft lottery is coming to a town near you. It's only a matter of time.

On the wish list: a point guard, a power forward, and a center.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.