Why did the utah jazz failed to give Karl Malone a legit 2nd scoring option in 1999??

[Lebron23]

Both Hornacek, and Stockton getting shutdown in the 1998 nba finals should have been a huge sign that the Jazz should have given him a better sidekick. Were they banking on Bryan Russell becoming a legit 2nd scoring option???

[Roundball_Rock]

Unless you had Krause as your GM back then you didn't make a major move after losing. Run it back, hope it somehow works better. :oldlol:

[Kblaze8855]

They tried that when they got Jeff Malone. He’s someone advanced stats hate because he was a 2 point shooter but the year before he joined the Jazz he did 24 a game shooting 49% and was a 27 year old multiple time all star joining a team with a 17/14 point, 30/11 power forward, a 20ppg tweener 6th man(soft as he was) and Eaton who was a rapidly winding down DPOY. It was a talented lineup any way you look at it with a 27 year old Malone.

Had less success than they did with less obviously talented rosters later. Part of it was the league getting less talented top end teams but part was going full Malone and Stockton execution and chemistry top to bottom. They won with precision, toughness, and repetition and not talent.

The talent route didn’t work so well.

[Kblaze8855]

Look how they beat the 98 lakers with 4 all stars....it isn’t sheer talent. It’s execution and chemistry.



https://youtu.be/_pW7oYxfBhY


Though Malone hit Shaq with a nasty fingerroll at the start.

[oldtimer28]

Both Hornacek, and Stockton getting shutdown in the 1998 nba finals should have been a huge sign that the Jazz should have given him a better sidekick. Were they banking on Bryan Russell becoming a legit 2nd scoring option???

Interesting. The whole strategy/free agent market seemed different then. Teams seemed more fixed on their system/staying the same generally instead of forming all star teams.

[Xiao Yao You]

They tried that when they got Jeff Malone. He’s someone advanced stats hate because he was a 2 point shooter but the year before he joined the Jazz he did 24 a game shooting 49% and was a 27 year old multiple time all star joining a team with a 17/14 point, 30/11 power forward, a 20ppg tweener 6th man(soft as he was) and Eaton who was a rapidly winding down DPOY. It was a talented lineup any way you look at it with a 27 year old Malone.

Had less success than they did with less obviously talented rosters later. Part of it was the league getting less talented top end teams but part was going full Malone and Stockton execution and chemistry top to bottom. They won with precision, toughness, and repetition and not talent.

The talent route didn’t work so well.

Would have been happy if they'd cut Malone and they got Horny for him. What a trade!. Malone was supposed to keep teams from packing the paint on Karl and everything he shot was 12-15 feet. Eaton sucked too. There's a reason their best teams were after he was done. Jazz are notoriously cheap. As long as they are filling the arena they were happy

[Xiao Yao You]

Interesting. The whole strategy/free agent market seemed different then. Teams seemed more fixed on their system/staying the same generally instead of forming all star teams.

not really. Jazz did and still do.

[Kblaze8855]

Eaton didn’t suck he was a two time DPOY who had years he’d block 8 shots or more 20+ games and have nights with like 12 points 18 rebounds and 13 blocks. He was however a 26 year old rookie so his prime was brief. You can say whatever about the offense with him but if you block 10-14 shots and your team scored 120 you didn’t hurt that much.

[Roundball_Rock]

The contrast with the Bulls is stark. The Bulls had one bad year and they traded for Rodman the next year. They easily could have said "let's run it back and see how it works with a full season of players playing together, MJ getting in basketball shape, etc" but went to upgrade the roster precisely where they were the weakest.