The main inspiration for me to examine Kevin O'Connor's career was the debate on whether the Jazz should have drafted Raul Lopez over Tony Parker. Many fans, and Brad Rock, couldn't help asking this question while watching Parker destroy the Jazz and remembering that Lopez only lasted a year and a half in the NBA. It's hard to not criticize your team for passing up on a future Finals MVP. Since this is regarded as O'Connor's biggest blunder, I'm going to try to give this move as thorough an examination as possible.
Season 3: 2001-02
After having a busy 2000 offseason, O'Connor was unusually quiet in 2001. I find this odd, considering how disheartening the first round loss to Dallas was. The Jazz had very few holes to fill. Olden Polynice and David Benoit retired, and Jacque Vaughn and Danny Manning left as free agents, but that was it. Everyone else was staying and 1999 draftee Andrei Kirilenko was finally making his move to the NBA. And as Brad Rock pointed out, the Jazz had virtually no cap space in 2001. Greg Ostertag was by far the most overpaid player on this roster, but Donyell Marshall ($6.5 million), Bryon Russell ($5 million), and John Starks ($2 million) were also overpaid to a certain extent based on their production. So to recap, in 2001, the Jazz lost in the first round for the first time since 1995, and a full salary/roster made any major changes quite daunting. So O'Connor decided to play things safe this year and rely heavily on Malone, Stockton, Marshall and Russell. I'll tell you how that turned out later.
The 2001 draft was a lot better than 2000's. Before I jump into the Lopez pick, let me remind you that Utah had previously owned Denver's 2001 pick, which turned out to be No. 11. Boston acquired this pick through the four-team Donyell Marshall trade, and they wasted it on Kedrick Brown, who had a rather insignificant NBA career. But if Utah didn't make that four-team trade, it would have had the chance to draft Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy, and Zach Randolph. Now that's something interesting to consider. Give up Donyell Marshall for a better 3-point shooting forward or a potential replacement for Malone. Undoubtedly, this would have hurt the Jazz in the short term, but things might have turned out better in the long run. Just a small thought.
Kevin O'Connor seemed content with the idea of DeShawn Stevenson being the future at shooting guard, so he focused this draft on finding a replacement for Stockton. (Stockton signed a two-year deal set to expire at the same time as Malone's, and many believed he would retire after that.) So the first player O'Connor pegged to replace the best point guard ever was Spaniard Raul Lopez. During the 2001 draft, I was at a Rick Majerus basketball camp (where he chewed me out for not sitting cross-legged once), and I initially just heard the Jazz drafted "some guy from Spain." For a moment, I thought that was Pau Gasol, and I got really excited. But then I realized that Gasol would never have fallen to No. 24. Instead, the Jazz ended up with the "Spanish Stockton," according to many. I'm not sure if this comparison was based on his game as much as his physical appearance. (Lopez was roughly the same height and weight of Stockton.) Another attractive feature to Lopez was that he was still under contract with his Spanish team, meaning the Jazz wouldn't have to use any precious salary cap to pay him for the next year or two. The idea was to let him continue to develop in Spain for a bit, then be ready to fill in Stockton's shoes after his retirement. This does make sense to a certain degree, but what would have happened had O'Connor insisted instead on bringing in Stockton's replacement immediately to learn from the master firsthand, or to go in a different direction entirely and fill a different need?
The 25th pick of the 2001 draft was Gerald Wallace, whose athleticism would have been a welcomed change of pace for the Jazz. But with his game being so similar to Kirilenko's, I don't think he would've found much playing time. The next pick was Samuel Dalembert, who probably could have been a decent center for the Jazz, and his humanitarian work would have won him over with the fans. But if he started underperforming on a massive contract (like he did with Philadelphia), he would have been just another Ostertag. The 27th pick was current Jazzman Jamaal Tinsley. He was extremely talented, and had some brilliant seasons with the Pacers, but became such a head case, Indiana actually started paying him to stay away from the team. Now that he's old and mellowed out, he was fine this year in Utah, but I have a feeling that had the Jazz drafted him, he would have been a pain in the butt and a detriment to the team. Or he would have picked up good habits from Stockton and Malone instead of bad habits from Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal, and never would have been a troublemaker. Doubtful, but you never know. Finally, with the final pick of the first round, the San Antonio Spurs selected Tony Parker from France.
Everybody sees Tony Parker now (Finals MVP, multiple All-Star, etc.) and forgets what was known about him in 2001. Back then, the big knock on him was no one could tell if he was a point guard or a shooting guard. Even today, I wouldn't call him a true, traditional point guard — at least not in the sense Stockton ran the position. And for a team looking for Stockton's replacement, this was a very important point (even though O'Connor replaced Hornacek with Stevenson, who's about as un-Hornacek-like as possible). Also, it has to be remembered that San Antonio barely drafted Parker in the first place. They weren't impressed with him after his first workout, but after watching some more tape on him, decided to give him a second workout. The Spurs took a gamble on Parker, and it paid off immediately. He was named to the All-Rookie First Team, and has been San Antonio's point guard ever since, helping them win three titles. But what would have happened had the Jazz grabbed this Frenchman before the Spurs? Parker has always been quite adept at the layup/teardrop shot he uses to always be among the league leaders in points in the paint. Stockton had a similar shot, and probably could have taught Parker how to use that to help set up teammates. I don't think Parker would have suddenly become a pass-first point guard just because he backed up Stockton, but he most likely would have been able to improve many of his point guard skills. I also think Parker would have seen some playing time alongside Stockton, especially given Utah's woeful shooting guard situation at the time. I also don't think Utah would have won three titles with Tony Parker, unless they could have brought in Tim Duncan somehow. But I do believe Parker could have been an anchor on the post-Stockton&Malone rebuilding team, and would have continued on through today, preventing the Jazz from having to demolish and rebuild their team a second time in the past decade.
There are also a few players drafted after Parker the Jazz could have got. At pick No. 30 was Gilbert Arenas. Recent injuries and incidents like bringing guns into locker rooms have caused us to forget how truly phenomenal Arenas was in his prime. But I think incidents like bringing guns into locker rooms would have prevented him from being a good fit with the Jazz. The 37th pick was Mehmet Okur, who eventually did make his way onto the Jazz. While I was frustrated with Okur at times, he was an All-Star and did help us win a few games. If Utah picked him in the draft, they would have had him for a few extra years and wouldn't have been tempted to sign players like John Amaechi. Pick No. 39 was another current Jazzman, Earl Watson. He has proved to be a decent backup point guard, but little more. If you're looking for a replacement for Stockton, then you don't want to waste time with a career backup, so I will not fault the Jazz at all for passing on Watson.
Raul Lopez came over to the Jazz in 2002, but immediately needed surgery to repair his ACL and sat out that whole first season. He did eventually play 131 games with the Jazz, averaging 6.5 points and 3.8 assists per game (numbers that surprised me), before another injury ended his NBA career for good. It is completely unfair to blame Kevin O'Connor for Lopez's injuries. If he would have stayed healthy and become everything the scouts said he could've been, then O'Connor would be praised as a genius. I don't blame O'Connor for picking Lopez because of the injuries, but I do blame him for being content with a regressing Jazz roster. As long as Stockton and Malone were on the team, you knew Utah would be in the playoffs. But if you're going to be that good, then why not make some more immediate moves to try to be a bit better? I know O'Connor inherited a tough salary situation from Layden, but he's already demonstrated creativity with the four-team trade. To me, it looks like every move O'Connor made in 2001 said, "I'm just going to ride the next couple of seasons out and wait for the salaries to clear up before I attempt anything drastic." It really was kind of a painfully slow rebuilding process that didn't include lottery picks.
O'Connor's best move in 2001 was using the 52nd pick on Jarron Collins, who was easily the last relevant player in the draft. He played eight seasons with the Jazz, and his best year was his rookie year, where he averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds a game. He never put up good numbers like that again (partly because he had a major injury in his second season), but he stayed around by playing smart, setting screens and drawing charges. Everybody says he was a huge flopper, but I think he helped the Jazz out a lot without appearing on the box score. I remember Jeff Hornacek once said Adam Keefe was one of his favorite teammates because he set such good screens. It's necessary to have a player like that on your roster — someone who doesn't care about numbers, but gets things done, anyway.
After the draft, O'Connor sought to replace Olden Polynice with "scoring center" John Amaechi. I must admit that I do feel a little guilty about this one. When my friend and I heard the Jazz were targeting Amaechi, we both became very excited because we remembered (as O'Connor did) how Amaechi once scored 24 points against the Jazz. He seemed like the missing piece we needed — a center who could knock down mid-range jumpers. So my friend and I found John Amaechi's website (a strange site where he pleaded with his fans to talk to him about poetry and literature instead of basketball), and we sent him an email begging him to come to Utah. I don't know how much a random email from a kid influenced Amaechi's decision (most likely it was O'Connor's offer of $2 million a year for three years), but he did come to Utah. Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that Amaechi had absolutely no interest in being a good basketball player. It was just something he begrudgingly did because he was tall and just good enough to make a couple of million dollars a year. If you look up apathy in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of John Amaechi in a Jazz uniform. He made Greg Ostertag look like Karl Malone. I really don't know how O'Connor failed to see Amaechi's apathy or his lack of rebounding or his lack of defense. It's one thing for an excited 14-year-old to miss these things, but for an NBA general manager? O'Connor really does not get enough blame for this signing.
The 2001-02 season was rather turbulent for the Jazz. Karl Malone and John Stockton were both solid as always, but were beginning to show their ages more than ever. Malone averaged 22.4 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 4.3 apg, and 1.9 spg. The 39-year-old Stockton put up 13.4 ppg, 8.2 apg, and 1.9 spg. However, injuries seemed to hamper every other Jazz player that year. Donyell Marshall averaged 14.8 ppg and 7.8 rpg, but only played in 58 games. Bryon Russell played in 66 games, averaging just 9.6 points per game, proving once and for all that he wouldn't be the Jazz leader after Stockton and Malone, let alone a reliable shooting guard alongside them. John Starks, who had a cancerous testicle removed during the Dallas series in 2001, was suddenly a complete non factor. (I could say he was half the man he used to be, but that would just be mean.) For some reason, Greg Ostertag had his worst season to date, and that combined with Amaechi's gross incompetence, left Collins as the default starting center. John Crotty was actually having the best year of his career as Stockton's backup (6.9 ppg), until an injury ended his season after just 41 games, forcing the Jazz to sign Rusty LaRue, who did put up a decent 5.8 ppg. The biggest bright spot was Kirilenko, who averaged 10.7 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.9 bpg and 1.4 spg. He was everything we were hoping for, and we were quite excited to see him have a long, long career with the Jazz. One other small bright spot was Scott Padgett finally developing into something, scoring 6.7 ppg. But DeShawn Stevenson continued to fail to contribute anything worthwhile, while Quincy Lewis contributed much less.
Utah started the season 1-4, and didn't reach .500 until Game 30 with 15-15 record. This was also the Olympics season, meaning the Jazz had to take a nine-game road trip during February, during which they surprisingly went 6-3. The Jazz eventually limped to a 44-38 record, their worst since 1987 when Frank Layden was still coach. In the first round of the playoffs, a hot Sacramento team crushed the Jazz in four games, winning the last two in the Delta Center. Looking at the sad state of the Kings now, I realize I miss hating that old team with Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber, and especially Vlade Divac. My brother hated Divac so much, he would hiss and gag every time his name was mentioned. No that Kings team was not classy at all, but it was kind of fun to hate someone other than the Lakers. Of course, it did become difficult when the Kings played the Lakers; then it became a matter of picking a lesser of two evils.
So to recap, the Jazz really did have a terrible 2001-02 season, caused by age, injuries, and an over-reliance on role players like Marshall, Russell, Stevenson, Starks and Amaechi, who all were disappointment to some degree. I don't think Lopez was O'Connor's biggest blunder, but I do blame him for being unable/unwilling to make major adjustments to a Jazz roster that was quickly sliding downhill.
Stay tuned for Part 4: Stockton and Malone's final season!
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