If Jerry Sloan had his druthers, the Jazz team starting the 2001-2002 season would look identical to the one recently eliminated from the opening round of the NBA playoffs.
"I don't like change. I've never liked change," Sloan said. "In coaching, I've always thought that was one of the advantages you have — if you can keep a team together.
"When I played, we kept a team together, and we felt we could win seven or eight more games . . . if we can keep everybody together, because they know what they're doing in tough situations," the Jazz coach and ex-Chicago Bull added. "And that is what I'm interest in trying to do: winning games."
Sloan, however, is enough of a realist to know the status quo won't totally be preserved.
"When you look around the room, you look and say, 'Well, we'd like to keep all these guys together,' " he said as his 2000-2001 team cleaned their Delta Center locker stalls a day after Dallas upset Utah in the fifth game of their best-of-five series. "But you . . . come back the following year, and there's always different faces there."
One fresh face next season is expected to be that of Russian small forward Andrei Kirilenko, one of the Jazz's three 1999 first-round draft choices. The
Jazz have said Kirilenko will join them for summer-league play in July, and team officials act as if they fully expect him to earn a roster spot during his first NBA training camp next October.
Beyond that, it is anyone's guess what the Jazz will look like.
Three Jazz vets are free agents who may or may not return: NBA all-time assists leader John Stockton, who has said he does plan to play again; backup point guard Jacque Vaughn, who has said he wants to come back as long as the Jazz want him; and reserve forward David Benoit, who hopes to be invited for a second season in his second stint with the Jazz.
Vaughn, who signed a one-year contract last season, did not say what it will take for him to believe the Jazz really want him, though this time he may seek a more financially enticing, multiseason deal.
"I can look at myself in the mirror," Vaughn said when asked about his season, "and say, 'I did what I was asked.' "
Beyond the free agents, four members of the Jazz control contract option rights for next season, potentially limiting roster flexibility.
Guard John Starks ("Definitely I want to be back next year — that's the plan now") and forward Danny Manning ("That's my plan") have both indicated they intend to return. Guard John Crotty also is expected to exercise his option. Olden Polynice, however, was non-committal at season's end. He may consider testing the free-agent market, which opens July 1 when teams can begin talking to players in anticipation of the Aug. 1 signing-period opening.
Those four have until June 30 to make their plans known.
The Jazz, whose seven other players all remain under contract, also must consider where youngsters like guard Quincy Lewis and forward Scott Padgett fit in their plans. Both have at least one more season remaining on their rookie deals, but the two 1999 first-round draft choices were also left off Utah's 12-man playoff roster, clouding their futures with the franchise.
Padgett was nearly traded last August, and either he and/or Lewis could be the subject of trade talks this summer in an effort to make roster room for Kirilenko and, perhaps, Utah's No. 24 overall selection in this year's draft.
Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor, however, suggested last week it is premature for the team to make commitments of any sort, either to a free agent like Vaughn or anyone else. Personnel issues, he added, will be addressed only after he, Sloan and Jazz owner Larry H. Miller consult.
"I think taking a deep breath is the best thing before even considering matters like those," O'Connor said.
That, Jazz star Karl Malone agrees, is a good idea.
"I think if you were the braintrust of this organization, and we lost (Game 5 to Dallas), you'd want to make a lot of changes (right away), if you could," Malone said when asked what offseason changes he'd like to see. "And who knows who they might try to change? But, when you think about the situation, and think about the wars that we've been through, you don't rush into those decisions.
"You don't make rash decisions."
Some decisions, however, eventually must be made.
That is why the realist in Sloan understands that as much as he may want to side with starting shooting guard Bryon Russell when Russell says "I expect to see everybody back," a scenario proffered by Starks is much likelier.
"I know there's gonna be changes," Starks said. "Like anything you go through, there's gonna be changes."
Like 'em, or not.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com