The Utah Jazz have spent the first week of the NBA season proving that old legs can get the job done, and head into today with a 4-0 record, sitting atop the Midwest Division.
It's way too early for postseason speculation, and the Jazz are liable to burn out at some point midway through the season, but they have battled through some close games and have even beaten the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
It was all Karl Malone and John Stockton in the Jazz's second game of the season, a 97-92 win over the Lakers. Last season, the Jazz dropped three of their four games against the Lakers, but Malone's 26 points and Stockton's 21 to go with 14 assists were enough to push Utah over Los Angeles last Wednesday on the night the team raised its championship banner from last season.
Odds on the aging Malone and company for winning a championship grow slimmer by the year, and four Midwest Division teams have started the season surprisingly strong (Dallas and Vancouver both entered Tuesday with 3-1 records), but the veteran squad appears ready to remain in the thick of things for most of the season.
But that may rest on how well the Utah's other key contributors to this point - John Starks and Bryon Russell - can play. Utah did not have the greatest off-season, trading away Howard Eisley and losing Jeff Hornacek to retirement. But the signing of Starks and veteran Danny Manning was supposed to make up for the losses, and Starks has not disappointed in the early games. The fiery former New York Knick, coming off a season and a half of unrecognized play in Golden State and a half-season of misery in Chicago, is back on a playoff contender, and his up-tempo game is thriving. Starks has been good for nearly 15 a night, filling the void left by Hornacek and then some, despite a drastically different style of play. After firing 17 shots in the season-opening win over Los Angeles, Starks has toned it down and is hitting nearly half of his attempts.
But perhaps the most pleasant surprise has been Russell, who comes off a career season and is peaking at the climax of his career. The forward, who will be 30 in December, has spent his entire career in Utah but was not much more than an afterthought until the past two seasons, overshadowed by the veteran Malone. But Russell has the potential to be the team's second-leading scorer and remains in the starting lineup ahead of recent acquisition Donyell Marshall, a small forward who coach Jerry Sloan has only given minimal game time thus far.
The team's holes are on the bench and at center, where starter Olden Polynice is little more than a body and the younger Greg Ostertag can hardly match up with some of the big guys in the West. Manning is a big name, but has not been much else the last couple of seasons and will likely not fit into Sloan's game plan much. He has been in about 15 minutes of each game and has scored seven points, but his legs are old, so his production likely won't increase.
In fact, the Jazz is filled with old legs, and that could do them in. Though there are some youngsters on the squad, all of the contributors are aging: Stockton is 38, Malone is 37, Polynice and Starks are 35, and Manning is 34. Russell and Marshall, the two guys at the fourth spot, will have to be competitive and the older players will have to remain injury-free if Utah is to keep pace with San Antonio. Six members of the Jazz reached double digits in Monday's 98-92 win over the Timberwolves; the team's goal should be to have six guys capable of doing the same at the end of the season.
