Secondly, it is also apparent that there are several subgroups within the team, as the players have hinted to the fans lately. As for the general change of personnel: Some of the now-long-gone last year's players who busted themselves every night have been substituted by less aggressive players with less zeal for their team. The product is a warm and cold team, with a lot of internal problems.

What will happen? The Gugliotta solution — they will trade Okur and/or Boozer while paying part of their salaries to their new teams and with clear cap money they will seek new players . . . but there is a problem Sloan's Waterloo: the delicate incident with Arroyo. Without getting into the fanatic frame of taking sides in this dispute, let's try to objectively envision the consequences of this turmoil. The Jazz expected great things from Arroyo, but as soon as the preseason started there were clouds in the horizon: too much attention and too much social life . . . without reviewing all the events the crash of locomotives occurred. Arroyo was benched and his career went on hold or even close to extermination. Meanwhile, the NBA players are paying close attention to what is happening to the USA "team assassin" . . . and it turns out that Arroyo is the only Olympic player that has stepped down his game this season. The rest, except Anthony, have really blossomed. Now the "headache" is gone, and gone to the Siberia — yes to the Siberia, since Larry Brown is as tough as Sloan on their defensive game. Wait now, Arroyo is being received and blessed by his opponent and even recognized as a great player by the same man who suffered the humiliation of being beaten by a truly underdog (Puerto Rican team), that couldn't have won unless Arroyo was there . . . end of the story. Now who with enough intelligence to envision his future will like to challenge the establishment and go to the small marketing franchise of Utah and take a dive like in Acapulco beach to watch as his career is destroyed? Not many, I suppose. First was Arroyo, next Memo and last, but not least, Boozer . . . but there will be Sloan for the next generation.

The damage to the franchise has been done, and the side effects will be seen very soon. In another place the coach would have resigned long ago, instead of blaming all the time his players . . . not in Utah . . . let's see who dares to sign with the Jazz now that the big contract will be traded or destroyed in the process.

The best way to rapidly heal the wounds would be to limit the ill press statements (Raja and Sloan, Harpring) and to stop pushing the fans to request the elimination of the large contracts. Create a fertile atmosphere for the next batch of players, and a must should be to accept the true limitations of this team, a team with no competitive center and with no zone defense and no zone attaching offensive. Then let the young men play and take the roller coaster they took last year.