What's new
By:

Comparative?

Dr. Jones

Dr. Jones

In pursuit of #9
Contributor
Probably a touchy subject from a 'new' Jazz fan, but here goes ...

Team 1
Stockton
Malone
Hornacek
Russell
Ostertag
Carr
Eisley
Anderson

Team 2
Williams
Bell
AK
Milsap
Jefferson
Miles
Okur
Fes
Hayward
Price
Gaines
(anyone else I missed)

Question is, how does this team compare position-by-position to the best Jazz team in history? I may get blasted for this, but it's worth consideration.
 
I think the 2nd team is a lot deeper across the board, but even with an aging Jeff Hornacek the first team is a lot more top heavy. While one could make the case with Deron and Stockton being equal (as blasphemous as it sounds to some), Malone is far better than anyone else on the 2nd team. Maybe Jefferson will be there some day (god willing, it would be awesome to have him described as a legit MVP candidate), but he's not near Malone's consistent epicness yes.

As for position:

PG: 1st team. Stockton to me is one of the 3 best ever, and Eisley was a much better backup than Price is.

PF: 1st team easily. Malone is a f'ing 2 time MVP. It gets a bit closer if you stick Jeffreson here, but not really even with that. I will say Milsap is far better than Big Dog was, and Keefe if you consider him a PF, but Malone just eclipses anything.

C: I'll go with the 2nd team, especially if Jefferson is listed as one, but even with Okur. Tag was ok, but Jeff Foster was a nothing backup. Fes is sorta that way too, but he still has potential.

SF: Another for the 2nd team. A 3rd year AK may have given the Jazz a championship against the Bulls. Russell wasn't quite garbage, but he was the definition of a system player. Anderson was pretty average too. Frankly, Miles has shown me more than him, at least last season.

SG: Probably the first team. Hornacek, even at his advanced age, is better than anyone the Jazz currently have at that position. Maybe Honzward grows into being a more versitile but not as good shooting version of him. Bell is decent, but older. This position is close to being a push.
 
How do they compare, when? Stockton and Malone played together for about 6 years before they ever made it to the conference finals. After that, those two stuck together for another 10-12 years and, until they started declining, anyway, seemed to improve every year.

Individual players don't win games. Teams do. And the more a team plays together, the better they should be, as a team. I don't expect the current Jazz team to start out anywhere near as good as they can "potentially" be. The Jazz NBA finalist teams, with Horny, Stock, Karl, et al where definitely better than I expect the current team to be this year. Farther in future could be a different story, though. It depends on a lot of things, and ya just never know.
 
If were talking primes team 2 wins.

AK47-Okur destroy everyone else on team 1 that isnt stockton and malone.

Bell shutdowns Hornecek

Stockton and Williams matchup would be amazing.


Team 2 would only have trouble containing Malone.
 
For the 98 team the whole was so much greater than the sum of its parts that any comparison to any team is difficult.

I will say I think 98 Malone would average 35 and 15 in a 7 games series against the 2009-2010 Jazz. He'd have 4 fouls on Boozer by halftime and he'd cave in Okur's chest with his first elbow.

I'll reserve judgement on Jefferson until I actually see him play on a team that requires him to play defense.
 
As teams, team 2 lacks the experience of team 1 RIGHT NOW. In another 2 years (with the addition of Tomic and maturation of Hayward), team 2 could definitely be better.
 
Mambo said:
If were talking primes team 2 wins.

AK47-Okur destroy everyone else on team 1 that isnt stockton and malone.

Bell shutdowns Hornecek

Stockton and Williams matchup would be amazing.


Team 2 would only have trouble containing Malone.
Click to expand...

.....yeah, Klinko and Okur would destroy that Jazz team with their outstanding defense and great ball handling! And certainly there were no good defensive ball players back in Stocks day like Raja Bell! Team one would destroy team 2 mainly because team 2 is brain dead compared to team one!
 
carolinajazz said:
.....yeah, Klinko and Okur would destroy that Jazz team with their outstanding defense and great ball handling! And certainly there were no good defensive ball players back in Stocks day like Raja Bell! Team one would destroy team 2 mainly because team 2 is brain dead compared to team one!
Click to expand...

Primes is the main point 4/5 guys on team 2 are All stars.
 
It's just a shame that we didn't have an overlap of Eaton and Hornacek. Stockton/Hornacek/Malone/Eaton is a dynamite team, even if it was 4 on 5 (I think they could beat most teams these days with those four and a cardboard cutout of Jose Ortiz).
 
Nate505 said:
I think the 2nd team is a lot deeper across the board, but even with an aging Jeff Hornacek the first team is a lot more top heavy. While one could make the case with Deron and Stockton being equal (as blasphemous as it sounds to some), Malone is far better than anyone else on the 2nd team. Maybe Jefferson will be there some day (god willing, it would be awesome to have him described as a legit MVP candidate), but he's not near Malone's consistent epicness yes.

As for position:

PG: 1st team. Stockton to me is one of the 3 best ever, and Eisley was a much better backup than Price is.

PF: 1st team easily. Malone is a f'ing 2 time MVP. It gets a bit closer if you stick Jeffreson here, but not really even with that. I will say Milsap is far better than Big Dog was, and Keefe if you consider him a PF, but Malone just eclipses anything.

C: I'll go with the 2nd team, especially if Jefferson is listed as one, but even with Okur. Tag was ok, but Jeff Foster was a nothing backup. Fes is sorta that way too, but he still has potential.

SF: Another for the 2nd team. A 3rd year AK may have given the Jazz a championship against the Bulls. Russell wasn't quite garbage, but he was the definition of a system player. Anderson was pretty average too. Frankly, Miles has shown me more than him, at least last season.

SG: Probably the first team. Hornacek, even at his advanced age, is better than anyone the Jazz currently have at that position. Maybe Honzward grows into being a more versitile but not as good shooting version of him. Bell is decent, but older. This position is close to being a push.
Click to expand...

I agree with you re: the 2nd team being deeper, but the 1st being "top-heavy."
However, you can't just pick and choose the best years for each player. For example, you can't take AK's 3rd year because Deron and Al weren't on the team. So you have to take the projected team in 2010/11 vs. the 97/98 squad. However, I can't believe PKM left Adam Keefe off the list. That right there gives the edge to the old school Jazz.

Seriously, you could argue Deron/Stockton is a wash. Malone has the edge over Jefferson. And the current version of Raja is not Horny's equal. Also, the CURRENT version of AK is about at the level of Bryon Russell. Russell could shoot a bit, but fell down on defense. AK can defend a bit, but falls down on offense as he attempts to drive inside (when he's not bricking his 3's, that is).

Old Jazz had 2 first-team all-stars and Horny at near all-star level. New Jazz have 1 all-star. Maybe Jefferson gets there. But you can't count the AK and Okur of 2010 because their appearances were several years ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top