2001-02 Utah Jazz record: 44-38, Lost NBA Western Conference First Round 1-3 vs Sacramento Kings
The 1985-86 Utah Jazz may have been in the dawn of a new era, but by 2001-02, the sun was definitively setting on John Stockton and Karl Malone.
The duo were both still All-Star caliber players. Stockton averaged 15.5 points and 9.5 assists in his age 39 season, while Malone averaged 22.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists at the age of 38.
Such productivity at each man’s advanced age was nothing short of remarkable, however, there was an obvious cap on this team’s ceiling, as it precisely met its expected 43-38 win/loss total. In the playoffs, each Utah Jazz star players’ age would begin to show dramatically, as they got ran off the floor by the running-and-gunning Sacramento Kings.
In 2001-02, the Kings led the NBA in pace. That posed a problem for two superstars in their late 30s. Meanwhile, the Kings were an overwhelmingly talented squad, led by Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby and Vlade Divac. They would go on to push the dynastic Los Angeles Lakers to 7 games in the Western Conference Finals.
They were one of the most talented teams to ever fall short of an NBA Finals appearance, and the Jazz were simply ill-equipped to handle their attack. John Stockton and Karl Malone saw more successful years together, to say the least.
1986-87 Utah Jazz record: 44-38, Lost NBA Western Conference First Round 2-3 vs Golden State Warriors
If Karl Malone and John Stockton were too weathered to lead an elite NBA team in 2001-02, they were probably a little too green for the task in 1986-87. The former was beginning to emerge as a potential franchise player by his age 23 season with averages of 21.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per contest.
Stockton, on the other hand, looked like something closer to an elite role player with averages of 7.9 points and 8.2 assists per game. He was stuck behind franchise icons Rickey Green and Darrell Griffith in Head Coach Frank Layden’s rotation.
This Utah Jazz team also lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs, this time to a Golden State Warriors outfit led by a historically-underrated Sleepy Floyd and a 23-year-old Chris Mullin. On paper, one might have expected this Jazz club to best the Warriors, but that’s why the games are played on the hardwood.
An underrated storyline from this season was Kelly Tripucka’s tremendous fall from grace. His first season in Salt Lake City, Tripucka’s points per game dipped from the 20.0 he averaged as a Piston in 1985-86 all the way down to 10.1 points per game. Evidently, something in Utah’s fresh mountain air didn’t agree with the star forward.