This was the first image that came up for Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor, and this is the typical expression you'll see him in — disgruntled, harassed, and generally unhappy-looking. O'Connor really does have a difficult job. He has to try to create the best Jazz team while trying to appease owner Greg Miller, coach Tyrone Corbin, and thousands of fans, many of whom know absolutely nothing. But it's these fans who pay his salary, and lately, there has been some wondering if he really is that good of a GM. This has inspired me to give a thorough season-by-season examination of O'Connor's 13-year career as general manager of the Jazz.
After Scott Layden left the Jazz to be the GM of the Knicks in 1999, former Jazz scout Kevin O'Connor took over for Utah, who had previously worked as the director of player personnel for the Philadelphia 76ers. In 13 years at the Jazz GM, O'Connor has seen Utah make it to the playoffs nine times and win three division titles. Only one current general manager has had a longer run with his team — Geoff Petrie, who has been Sacramento's GM for 17 years, a span that included nine playoff appearances and two division titles. In one sense, O'Connor has done a better job than Petrie, although he was twice named Executive of the Year, while O'Connor has never won that award. In any case, it is rather impressive that O'Connor has stayed around for so long, and has overseen the transition from the Stockton-Malone era to the short-lived Boozer-Williams era to today's Millsap? era. I know it's going to be very rather unfair to grade O'Connor's performance with the benefit of hindsight, but I do think it will be quite interesting to take a look at every major move he's made and playfully theorize what could have been. Will I ever be able to really determine how good of a GM Kevin O'Connor is? Probably not, but I hope you come along with me for the ride through recent Jazz history.
Season 1: 1999-2000
According to HoopsHype.com, O'Connor's first official act as Jazz GM was signing aging center Olden Polynice. Because of Greg Ostertag's continued (and infuriating) inconsistency, the Jazz needed another center to split time with him. Veteran Polynice seemed like a good idea. He was 7-feet tall, could rebound, block shots, and hopefully score a little. His best year was 1993-94, where he averaged just under 12 points and 12 rebounds a game while splitting time between the 20-win Pistons and the 28-win Kings. In fact, Polynice had a long history of putting up decent numbers on horrendous teams. By the time he came to the Jazz, he was entering his 13th season and didn't have the stamina to play more than 22 minutes a game. But he did appear in all 82 games and started in 79. He averaged about 5 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block each game, while shooting a comically abysmal 31 percent from the foul line. And that was after he got laser eye surgery! And perhaps the worst thing about him was his well-publicized incident where he impersonated a police officer.
Was this a good signing? He did put up basically the same numbers as Ostertag for less than half the price (Polynice made $2 million his first year, while Big O was paid $5.2 million). But I can't help thinking the Jazz were expecting (and needing) O.P. to score a bit more. They certainly were expecting him to make more than a third of his foul shots. But then again, I don't know who else O'Connor could have signed instead of Polynice. The Jazz were a veteran team in 1999, and they wanted to bring in more experienced veterans to extend any playoff runs Stockton and Malone could still have in them. Polynice definitely was an experienced veteran, but he didn't have much playoff experience (22 games in 12 years). This was not a horrible move, but I do think O'Connor should have been able to find someone better.
O'Connor's next big move was re-signing John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek. No matter how you look at it, this was a necessary, and a great move. Stockton and Hornacek meant so much to the Jazz, they had to finish their careers in Utah. Plus, they were still pretty effective in 1999. Stockton averaged 12 ppg, 8.6 apg, and 1.7 spg, while Hornacek scored 12.4 ppg with shooting averages of 49 percent from the field, 48 percent from 3, and 95 percent from the line. I guess Hornacek made up for Polynice's free throw failures. Anyway, imagining a scenario where those could still play like that but not on the Jazz would have been a tragedy, so let's give credit to O'Connor (even though it was a no-brainer).
The 1999-2000 Jazz team relied on a veteran eight-man rotation. Leading the way as always was Karl Malone, averaging 25.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.0 spg, and 0.9 bpg, while shooting 50 percent from the field and just a hair under 80 percent from the foul line. Did I mention he was 36 years old? (Quick tangent: Tim Duncan just turned 36 and is averaging 15 points and 9 rebounds per game. Just saying.) Right behind Malone was Bryon Russell at his best, averaging 14 ppg, 5 rpg, and 1.7 spg. Rounding out the starting lineup were Stockton, Hornacek, and Polynice, whom I've already talked about. The sixth man this year was Howard Eisley, putting up 8.6 ppg and 4.2 apg, while the very old Armen Gilliam provided 6.7 ppg and 4.2 rpg off the bench. And then Greg Ostertag was pretty much a Polynice clone. If you combined the two Jazz centers, you'd get one pretty good one that averaged 9.8 ppg, 11.5 rpg, and 3.1 bpg. Unfortunately, they were two separate, underachieving players.
Filling out the Jazz roster were rookies Quincy Lewis and Scott Padgett, third point guard Jacque Vaughn, journeyman Pete Chilcutt, and Adam Keefe, who was sadly and painfully on his last legs. The Jazz went 55-27 and won the Midwest Division title. But after sneaking by Seattle in the first round, the Jazz were crushed in five games by Portland. The sharp-shooting of Steve Smith, the all-around play of Scottie Pippen, and the dominance of big men Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, and Brian Grant put a sad end to Utah's season. It ended up being the last time Stockton and Malone made it to the second round.
So overall, I think Kevin O'Connor did fairly well his first season. He didn't do much, but he didn't need to. The Jazz were old, but still competitive, and O'Connor kept them that way. I honestly don't think a return to the Finals was a realistic goal for this season, but I think a 55-win, 2nd-round appearance is rather successful. As a fan, I do remember fondly watching these last few moments of Stockton, Malone and Hornacek together. Not that O'Connor really deserves much credit (good or bad) for this year. He was just kind of there.
Stay tuned for my examination of Kevin O'Connor's role in the 2000-01 season.
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