The J-Notes
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Utah Jazz: The five worst ‘Big 3’ trios in franchise history

By Caleb Manser

Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Jamaal Tinsley, Utah Jazz (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Jamaal Tinsley, Utah Jazz (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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Donnell Harvey, Denver Nuggets. Mark Jackson, Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Utah Jazz. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /

Number Three

Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, 2003-04

Playoff Appearances: Zero

All-Stars: Andrei Kirilenko (2004)

Relative to expectations, this team perhaps put on one of the best performances in franchise history considering the obstacles they had to face.

They won 42 games and were only two victories away from the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference playoff picture, and are rightfully beloved by fans for their hustle, grit, and tenacity.

But this still doesn’t take away from the fact that this group did not have a lot of talent put in place by the front office. When the leading scorer on your team is Andrei Kirilenko at less than 17 points per game, then that’s when you know your offense is in trouble.

AK-47 wasn’t a lethal 3-point shooter or an isolation scorer by any means. He got most of his points through dunks and layups in transition or off an excellent feed from a teammate as he cut to the basket.

If he wasn’t the ideal go-to scorer for this team, then who was?

Matt Harpring also cleared 16 points per game on an efficient 47 percent shooting from the field, but he wasn’t best suited as an alpha on offense. Just look at his assist-to-turnover ratio and the eye test, which says he is a defensive specialist.

Carlos Arroyo, an undrafted point guard from Puerto Rico stepped up that season to help round out a Big 3 in Salt Lake City. He placed third on the team in win shares and PER and second in usage percentage.

If you need more evidence to prove that this trio was not supposed to be good on paper, look at the pre-season over/under win total that was placed for this group: 25.5 wins, dead last in the league.

This was the first year of rebuilding and moving on from the John Stockton and Karl Malone era, as Stockton announced his retirement the previous spring, and Malone had signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer.

Simply put, this team wasn’t designed to be very good in the first place by the front office. It was by virtue of Jerry Sloan’s sheer coaching greatness that they were able to win 42 games and stay in the playoff hunt up until the very end of the season.