The Utah Jazz have had some great star parings across their 50-year history as a franchise.
Despite the team yet to be able to raise the Larry O’Brien trophy, the Utah Jazz are one of the most storied franchises in NBA history. After spending their first five seasons in New Orleans before settling in their current home in Salt Lake City, the team has seen their fair share of star talent.
While some teams have a lone star to lead their franchise, most oftentimes find a great one-two punch that’s difficult to defend at once. In the Jazz’s case, the team has had many great pairings that led to some successful seasons in years past.
Utah’s known to have one of the greatest NBA duos in the history of the game, but beyond those two, there’s been a good variety of players.
Here are the top 5 duos we’ve seen across the Utah Jazz’s history.
5. Pete Maravich and Truck Robinson
You can’t talk about the history of the Utah Jazz without mentioning “Pistol” Pete Maravich, which gets him enough credit to secure a spot on this list.
It’s a little more difficult to find a distinct second option that Maravich played with while with the Jazz. However, two solid seasons with Pete with an All-Star appearance in one proved to be enough to give Truck a spot as well.
Pete was nearing the end of his career when he was with the Jazz, entering his early 30s, but still managed to average 24.8 points, 3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists in his time with Truck. As for Robinson, he joined Pete and the Jazz in 1977 and proved to be a monster on the boards. He averaged over 22 points and 15 rebounds a game in his first season with the team, getting him an All-Star selection.
While Pete and Truck had some good numbers, the duo was never able to find long-term team success with the Jazz. They never finished the season with a record above .500, and after two short seasons, the duo was split up.
Lucky for the Jazz, they had many more great duos to come.
4. Adrian Dantley and Darrell Griffth
When you hear about Adrian Dantley today, you hear about his great scoring ability. He was one of the best scorers in the history of the game. In his seven seasons with the Jazz, he put up an average of 29 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists.
When you pair Dantley with a routine 20-point-per-game scorer in Darrell Griffith, it’s safe to say it would be one of the best and most entertaining duos in team history.
This took place in the early 80s when the Jazz had just moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City, and was a big part of the Jazz’s growth in Utah. These two exciting scorers got fans in the seats and established some of the cultures with the Jazz we still see today.
Even in today’s game, this duo could be one of the greatest. With their combination of size, athleticism, and scoring ability, they could work in any era. However, just like the Maravich-era Jazz, they never could find team success.
As a duo in Utah, the team was never able to get past the second round, and after five short seasons, we saw the pairing come to an end. While never able to make it to the championship, this duo was the reason the Jazz made their first playoff appearance in team history, so that has to count for something.
3. Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams
One of the more underrated NBA duos in recent times, when Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer were both playing at an All-NBA level, they looked borderline untouchable at times.
Both of them made All-NBA teams while they were in Utah, which is especially impressive given the amount of elite talent in the league at the time. Looking back, it’s almost easy to overlook the success of these two.
There was a time in Williams’ career when he was considered to be one of the top point guards in the league. He averaged over 17 points and 9 assists across his career in Utah, establishing himself as one of the best floor generals of the 2000s. As for Boozer, he was able to get All-Star honors in two of his years with the franchise; the only of his career. He averaged over 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 6-year span with Utah.
The team even made a Western Conference Finals with these two in 2007 before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in 5. After that season though, the team never reached those heights again.
Sometimes it may be easy to forget the 2000s years of the Jazz, but these years have definitely been some of the most fun in team history.
2. Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert
Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert may not have taken the Jazz as deep in the playoffs as anyone would have liked, but these two in their prime were some of the best in Jazz history. The Jazz never once missed the playoffs with these two on the same team.
These two were a great fit on the court. A high-flying, scoring guard that can handle the ball combined with a towering, shot-blocking, and lob-catching big on paper is a basketball staple. While Mitchell and Gobert were some notches below a Kobe-Shaq type of duo, it still was enough for six straight seasons over .500.
Towards the end of their run though, there were a few hiccups. After the entire COVID situation involving the two, their chemistry never was the same, and it became the beginning of the end as this era of Jazz teams came to a close. It ended in a first-round exit with the two being traded for some big hauls.
Taking some of the recency bias out of the equation, the two had some great times together in Utah. These two also were able to help the Jazz prepare to build their team for the next half-decade, so that’s also worth appreciating.
1. Karl Malone and John Stockton
Not only is this the best duo in Jazz history by no contest, but many consider the combo of John Stockton and Malone one of the top ten duos in all of NBA history.
These two are considered the greatest individual players in Utah Jazz history. When you pair them together though, the pairing of one of the game’s greatest floor generals and the third-leading scorer of all time made this franchise consistently one of the best in the NBA throughout the late ’80s and ’90s.
The two famously couldn’t bring the Jazz their first NBA Championship, as they were always stopped by the iconic Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, but that shouldn’t sour the immense amount of success they had during their stretch together.
Stockton leads the NBA all-time in assists and steals, with a record that’s so untouchable that no one even managed to come close to breaking it. Malone is named one of the more successful power forwards in NBA history
There are few players more synonymous with a single franchise in NBA history. Even without the championship success that other stars achieved over their careers, when the best years of your career take place in the Jordan days, that’s just how it is.