It's time for the annual look at what the rest of the world is saying about the Utah Jazz's prospects for the upcoming season, and - Huge Surprise! - what we find is that the Jazz still haven't convinced anyone.
The general feeling is that the Jazz have one foot in the grave, that last spring's Western Conference Finals appearance was the last hurrah of a bunch of hardcourt geezers.Of a half dozen preseason magazines surveyed, only two picked Utah to even take second place in the Midwest Division. The other four unanimously tabbed the Jazz as third-place finishers. Here's a sampling of what they said: "John Stockton and Karl Malone demand so much respect that it's hard to get mad at Jazz management for squandering their careers without the third or fourth pieces of the championship puzzle," Steve Aschburner of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote for The Sporting News. "Let's face it: The Jazz isn't likely to win it all . . ."
"Every year, the pundits predict that age finally will catch up with Stockton and Malone," wrote Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, also in The Sporting News. "Every year, Utah wins 50-plus games. But barring a late addition, Utah again will be no better than a contender . . . Last season probably was the best, and last, chance."
"Do you think John Stockton and Karl Malone know?" asks Mike Monroe of the Denver Post, writing in NBA Inside Stuff. "Deep down, do they suspect the Jazz will never win it all?"
"(Stockton and Malone) have logged double-figure service in the NBA and are clearly not as spry as they used to be," said Preview Sports magazine. "One has to wonder how many more times each can summon the strength and endurance necessary to withstand a 100-game season."
"Don't the law of averages, odds or something have to kick in for these dudes?" asked The Source Sports Basketball Preview. "How can you get into the playoffs every year with two Hall of Famers and never, ever, ever, ever, ever . . . get to the Finals?"
KUDOS
Sporting News cites Jeff Hornacek as the Western player who shoots too little, and the Delta Center as having the friendliest rims in the West.
According to Ultimate Sports Basketball magazine, Malone is the league's best power forward, Stockton the No. 3 point guard. Preview Sports rates them the same, but adds Jeff Hornacek as the eighth-best shooting guard and Jerry Sloan as the seventh-best coach.
Bill Walton's Pro Basketball Preview rates players according to a statistical formula called the "Winning Average," which calculates how a team does when a player is on the floor as opposed to on the bench. It ranked the Jazz's starting five of last season as the league's second-best, behind Chicago. It rated the Jazz's starting backcourt of Stockton-Hornacek as the second-best, behind Chicago's Jordan-Ron Harper; and the frontcourt of Malone-Felton Spencer-David Benoit as third-best. Stockton ranked No. 4 overall.
Walton ranked Utah second on a list of teams he likes to watch.
PREDICTIONS
Sporting News: Jerry Sloan wins Coach of the Year, Karl Malone makes All-Star first team.
Walton: Malone on All-NBA first team, Utah finishes with fourth-best record in the West.
QUOTES
After Bryon Russell predicted he'd win the Defensive Player of the Year award, Malone said: "He's a '90s kind of guy. He's probably getting license plates that say `STOPPER' on them."
The Source called Greg Ostertag "Not as dumb or useless as he looked in `Eddie.' " Of others it said: Stockton - "Big hands, big heart but he's slowing down." Chris Morris - "Seemed to straighten up his act among the Mormons . . ."
OTHER STUFF
A survey of five longtime NBA observers in The Sporting News listed Sloan as the second hardest-working player of all-time, right behind John Havlicek and ahead of Michael Jordan. The same survey put Jazz broadcaster Hot Rod Hundley as the third biggest flake of all-time, ahead of Dennis Rodman and ex-Jazzman Darryl Dawkins; ex-Jazz player Adrian Dantley on the Most Overrated and Most Selfish lists; Stockton on the Most Selfless and Best Passer lists; ex-Jazzman Mel Turpin on the Worst Rebounding Big Men list; Stockton and Malone on the Best Draft Picks list; ex-University of Utah player Bill McGill as the second-worst draft pick of all-time; and Salt Lake City on the Worst Cities list.