Enemy Lines An Opposing Team's Scout Sizes Up The Jazz

Forget everything about the Stockton and Malone era. If this team wins 20 games I'll be surprised. Its only hope is to take on the personality of coach Jerry Sloan and become the NBA's hardest-working team, because this is probably the least talented club in the league....

Despite their youth they'll have a surprisingly high basketball IQ, they'll move well without the ball, and they'll try to make the extra pass. But it doesn't matter how well you run a play, you still need somebody to put the ball into the basket, and I don't know where the points are going to come from—especially in the last six minutes when opponents are turning up the defense....

Unless they make a move to bring in a veteran, they'll be going from the best point guard play in the league to Carlos Arroyo and Raul Lopez, who is coming off two reconstructive ACL surgeries. They'll have a hard time getting the ball past half-court and setting up the offense some nights....

You also want to attack their big guys, especially Greg Ostertag, who is one of the most foul-prone guys in the league. I know that Sloan has always been frustrated by Ostertag, but on this team Ostertag is one of his most reliable guys....

Andrei Kirilenko is the kind of hustle player who can make good things happen at both ends of the floor. But the bottom line is that they have no experienced floor leader, no one to command a double team in the post and little perimeter shooting. It's going to be especially hard on Matt Harpring, who scored by moving without the ball while Stockton and Malone commanded so much attention. Harpring is going to have to develop a new type of game so he can create his own shot....

DeShawn Stevenson still doesn't understand how to play. If he couldn't learn with Stockton and Malone, I doubt he's going to learn now.