The Utah Jazz were a good team for seven seasons because of John Stockton and Karl Malone. But the Jazz did not become an exceptional team until making a trade that defied conventional NBA logic.
During the 1993-94 season the Jazz traded Jeff Malone to Philadelphia for Jeff Hornacek. In Philadelphia the reaction was generally positive. In Utah, it ranged from negative to so-what. The Jazz had made previous unsuccessful efforts to find players to complement Karl Malone and Stockton.
Jeff Malone had a career scoring average at that time of just under 20 points per game. Hornacek was five points below that.
Three years later, it is clear that Hornacek has been the third player the Jazz needed to elevate themselves to championship contention. Last season, they reached the Western Conference finals. This season they are headed into the playoffs as the conference's No. 1 seed for the first time in franchise history.
TENDEX IDENTIFIED THE HORNACEK-MALONE trade as a potential steal for the Jazz right from the beginning.
Going into the 1993-94 season, Hornacek's career TENDEX rating was .532. Malone's was .446. According to those numbers, Hornacek was deserving of star status. Malone was just an average two-guard.
And yet, because of the traditional bias favoring scorers, Malone had been picked for two NBA All-Star games, Hornacek for one. Malone was generally regarded as the better player.
What did TENDEX know that everybody else was overlooking?
It gets back to why TENDEX is called TENDEX. Scoring isn't everything. TENDEX is a blend of 10 statistical categories. Hornacek was better than Malone in nearly every category other than scoring.
Of all the TENDEX categories, the ones most often overlooked are the ones I call BEST (Blocked shots-Steals-Turnovers). These are important statistics. All else being equal, a team can win a bunch of games by acquiring extra ball possessions by blocking shots, stealing the ball and avoiding turnovers.
The evidence? The only two teams in the NBA which have totaled more blocked shots and steals combined than turnovers this season are Seattle and the LA Lakers -- the two and three seeds in the Western Conference, behind Utah.
So how does this relate to the Hornacek-Malone trade? Simple: The now-retired Malone was a lousy BEST player. Hornacek is a good one. Hornacek is one of only 35 regular player in the NBA this season with more total steals and blocked shots than turnovers. That is just a little more than one player per team.
IN ADDITION TO HORNACEK, THE BEST list below contains numerous other underrated players who have creditable TENDEX ratings. Ervin Johnson, Shawn Bradley, Charles Outlaw, Vlade Divac, P.J. Brown and rookie Marcus Camby are just a few of them.
Camby deserves serious Rookie of the Year consideration because he is a complete player.
Johnson was a party to the blooper-of-the-year decision by the Seattle Supersonics. Seattle management decided to dump Johnson and pay big bucks to free agent Jim McIlvaine.
TENDEX showed the Sonics should have kept Johnson. His career TENDEX rating coming into this season was right at .550 (average for a center). McIlvaine's was an appalling .407. He is like Jeff Malone, a one-dimensional player: All he can do is block shots.
Retract the Hornacek-Malone deal and reverse the McIlvaine-Johnson decision and Seattle would be comfortably atop the conference standings. Utah would be battling it out with Portland for No. 4.
| Player, Team | Steals | Turnovers | Blocks | +/- |
| Ervin Johnson, Denver | 55 | 97 | 189 | +147 |
| Shawn Bradley, Dallas | 33 | 102 | 211 | +142 |
| Dikembe Mutombo, Atlanta | 41 | 157 | 229 | +113 |
| Charles Outlaw, LA Clippers | 70 | 86 | 112 | +96 |
| Kevin Garnett, Minnesota | 95 | 145 | 143 | +93 |
| Vlade Divac, Charlotte | 85 | 158 | 153 | +80 |
| Marcus Camby, Toronto | 55 | 98 | 109 | +66 |
| P.J. Brown, Miami | 67 | 96 | 92 | +63 |
| Eddie Jones, LA Lakers | 157 | 142 | 41 | +56 |
| Horace Grant, Orlando | 88 | 88 | 56 | +56 |
| Kerry Kittles, New Jersey | 126 | 101 | 29 | +54 |
| Lindsey Hunter, Detroit | 106 | 75 | 20 | +51 |
| Shaquille O'Neal, LA Lakers | 40 | 134 | 140 | +46 |
| Bryon Russell, Utah | 105 | 81 | 22 | +46 |
| Sam Perkins, Seattle | 63 | 64 | 35 | +34 |
| Hersey Hawkins, Seattle | 130 | 107 | 10 | +33 |
| Mookie Blaylock, Atlanta | 169 | 157 | 18 | +30 |
| Rick Fox, Boston | 152 | 162 | 40 | +30 |
| Elden Campbell, LA Lakers | 41 | 117 | 105 | +29 |
| Todd Day, Boston | 93 | 108 | 43 | +28 |
Dave Heeren invented TENDEX in 1960 and is the author of an annual TENDEX draft report. You can email him at davetendex@aol.com.