I think one thing we all tend to forget is just how good Stockton and Malone were, even after 1999. When I look back at those seasons in the early 2000s, I tend to remember aging Stock and Malone running on fumes and just barely dragging the Jazz into the playoffs. That's actually not at all how it played out. Stock and Malone were both still really good in their late 30s. Advanced numbers were through the roof, and actually historic for players of that age. Most players who managed to play in the league at 39 or 40 were just washed and a massive net negative statistically. We're talking people just being there because of former glory and/or because a team just needed a body to throw out there for a few minutes.
Stock and Malone were good. The front office just let them down, as they had so often done. I mentioned before how the team in the 1998 Finals was put together 4 years earlier and no upgrades were made since. It actually gets worse. Between that trade for Horny in March 1994 and a trade that landed us Donyell Marshall in August of 2000, the Jazz had neither traded for, signed, or drafted a player who would contribute above replacement level for us in the time they were here. Think about that for a second. Six and a half years and not one player that actually made us better. I know some of you will immediately point to Kirilenko being drafted in 1999, but he didn't come over from Russia until 2001. This is absolutely ridiculous. It should also be pointed out that until we landed Marshall, we had also not made a proper trade for anyone since Hornacek. A second round pick for Fuller is a joke.
I have already posted above the moves made in the 1999 season. Next year, the Jazz signed Olden Polynice and Armen Gilliam. That was it. That was the best our FO could do. Ridiculous. Polynice was 35, terrible to begin with, worst FT shooter in history, so of course he was played for 20 minutes a game next two seasons and started 158 games for the Jazz. Holy freaking hell. Gilliam was just as old, just as bad, but immediately became Malone's main backup. He'd be dead within 10 years, that's how broken down he was at this point, having been slightly better than Polynice in his prime. He was nicknamed The Hammer and Black Hole earlier in his career. Good stuff. The Jazz somehow won 55 games in 2000, despite this.
Then Horny retires, and is replaced by John Starks. Best known for being a one-time All Star(East 1994, the absolute worst All Star team of all time...look it up) and for singlehandedly costing the Knicks a title in 1994. Naturally, he was also 35. The Jazz only signed washed up 35-year olds at this point. John Crotty was also brough back a few days later, in addition to Danny Manning. By the end of the season, Manning would turn....you guessed it, 35. The Jazz do trade for Marshall, who in addition to Kirilenko, is the one bright spot of Malone and Stock's last 5 years here. The Jazz also sign David Benoit, because after Bailey re-retired, we needed another washed up former Jazzman from the early 90s.
Now, here's a crazy thing. We all remember how the Jazz played the Mavs in the first round and were up 14 going into the 4th quarter of the deciding game 5 and then lost because no one other than Stockton and Malone scored in that quarter. Do you remember this, though? These are league standings from March 9th, 2001.
I have somehow forgotten this. This is quite late in the season, Stockton is just about to turn 39, Malone is almost 38, and the Jazz had the best record in the league. Ahead of the Spurs, the Kings, and the Lakers. The Jazz would lose their next game in Sacramento, and would basically run out of steam and finish 4th and then the whole Dallas fiasco happened. A sad end in a way to the Stockton-Malone years as that was the last time the Jazz won 50+ and had HCA. Not that I think the Jazz would've beaten the Spurs had they made it past the Mavs, and that was the year the Lakers swept all 3 WC playoff rounds, but it just makes me sad looking at the standings above. A Jazz team starting Polynice and Starks, with a bench featuring Crotty, Padgett, Manning, Ostertag, Vaughn, and Benoit finished with 53 wins. Again, Stockton and Malone were 39 and 38 by the end of that season. Can any one of you think of any other players that age in NBA's history you could replace Stock and Malone with and win more than 40 games with that cast? Hell, can you think of any NBA players aged 38 and 39 who could've led any cast to 53 wins as the two clear-cut top players on the team?
You should check out the on/off numbers for that season. John Stockton was at +18.5! No, that's not a typo. The Jazz point difference with Stockton on court was 18.5 per 100 possessions more than with Stockton off the floor. In his MVP season, when Westbrook could barely take a seat because of how bad some of the muppets he played with were, he was at +12.6. LeBron James had one season better than 18.5, and that was more than a decade ago in Cleveland. Neither of these dudes were 39. Malone was obviously a net plus that year, and so were Marshall and Russell. That was it. Basically, the Jazz couldn't even get a fifth guy who wasn't an embarrassment out on the court.
Next year, Malone started to noticeably run out of steam, and we might have missed the playoffs had it not been for the addition of a rookie Kirilenko. We did let two of our positive guys from the year before walk for free. Not that either of Marshall or Russell were great players, and even a rookie Kirilenko was better than both of them in their prime, but surely, a sign-and-trade of some kind could've been done just to net something in return. The Jazz biggest and only acquisition that year was throwing money at Amaechi to lure him from Orlando. Oh, the humanity. It wasn't until 2004 and 2005 and signings of Okur and Boozer and the trading up to draft Deron that you had the sense that someone in the FO had a plan or knew what they were doing. That's a decade, a freaking
decade after the trade for Horny that we finally made some moves that actually made the team better. Ridiculous.
