SALT LAKE CITY — Absent their leading scorer, cast as a team of defensive specialists, the Jazz open their 38th season in Utah on Wednesday.
This is what you do when you have (a) minimal firepower and (b) Rudy Gobert rerouting traffic. It’s a team that, like Marty Feldman, will be lovable because of its ugliness and uniqueness. This is no Karl Malone-John Stockton combination. No Deron Williams-Carlos Boozer or even Al Jefferson-Paul Millsap grouping, either.
It’s a team that will eke into the playoffs without a true go-to offensive player. That’s why, with the departures of George Hill and Gordon Hayward, their aspiration should be to imitate the 2003-04 Jazz.