Utah Jazz: The five worst ‘Big 3’ trios in franchise history
By Caleb Manser
Number One
Adrian Dantley, Terry Furlow, Ron Boone, 1979-80
Playoff Appearances: Zero
All-Stars: Adrian Dantley (1980)
Last and certainly least of all these trios is the very first team to call themselves the “Utah Jazz”. When the team moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City in 1979, it was laughable.
There was no Jazz music in the Wasatch Front that could hold a candle to the big brass bands on the historic streets of New Orleans. The name didn’t fit the place at all.
In addition, the Jazzmen were struggling to win games and fill seats in the venues they played in. Their basketball team went 24-58 the first year in Utah, and that stands today as the worst record of All-Time since moving from the Bayou.
Pete Maravich, the former All-Star and scoring leader of the NBA played in just 17 games that season. He was unhappy being in Utah and wasn’t a real difference-maker on the court.
In the limited time that he did play for the Utah Jazz, he followed the trend he set in his time in New Orleans, which was: scoring lots of points, but not positively impacting the game.
In other words, for much of his career Pistol Pete put up empty stats, and that certainly held true in 1979-80. He was dead last on the team for win shares with a negative 0.5 in that category. Pretty bad for supposedly being one of our best players.
Adrian Dantley willed this team to 15th in offensive efficiency by scoring 28 points per game on 57 percent shooting from the field. But he also averaged more turnovers than assists.
Ron Boone was on the last legs of his career at 33 years old and posted a negative in offensive and defensive box plus-minus scores, and VORP (value over replacement player).
Terry Furlow wasn’t that much better, as he was barely floating a positive in VORP and offensive box plus-minus. Sadly Furlow wouldn’t get any more time beyond the 1979-80 season to develop into a better player.
He was tragically killed in an accident in May of 1980 with traces of cocaine in his bloodstream.
dark. Next. Before Clarkson's bench eruption, there was Burks
This team started out by losing 18 of their first 20 games before making the trade to acquire Furlow. During that stretch, they lost 14 straight games, which is the second-longest losing streak in Utah Jazz history.