Jazz just haven't been able to get the 'point' this year

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — At the season's start, the plan appeared perfect.

Starter Carlos Arroyo, hot off a sizzling Summer Olympics playing for his native Puerto Rico, was newly signed to a four-year, $16-million contract that seemed as if it just might wind up being a steal.

Despite two reconstructive surgeries on the same knee, Raul Lopez had played all 82 games during the 2003-04 season — and there was so much confidence in his both his ability and health that the $1.7 million 2005-06 option season on his rookie contract was picked up so he could continue to back up Arroyo.

Promising Keith McLeod was on board as a No. 3 insurance policy.

The Jazz's points were all in place, presumably for seasons to come.

Then, faster than you can say "John Stockton is still retired," it all began to unravel.

"The uncertainty over the course of the season," Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said, "has been frustrating."

The problems began with the muscles around Lopez's knee, which weren't quite in tip-top shape following a summer of team-ordered rest.

It would cost him the preseason.

By the beginning of November, Lopez had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to clean out cartilage debris in the bad knee.

Arroyo then sprained his ankle in Utah's final exhibition game, at New York, and was destined to miss the start of the regular season.

McLeod had only a so-so training camp, and there was question as to whether or not he could carry the load while Arroyo and Lopez rehabbed.

The Jazz desperately needed help, so they turned to former Stockton backup Howard Eisley and essentially assured the familiar veteran face he would be around all season long.

Then McLeod got off to an incredible start, and so did the Jazz at 6-1.

Maybe there was a way to salvage this thing after all, the Jazz figured. Things turned sour, though, shortly after Stockton 'heir apparently not' Arroyo returned.

The team started losing, and hardly ever stopped — to the point Utah is now 20-41 as it opens a five-game road trip today at Detroit.

Arroyo got under Jerry Sloan's skin, perhaps in part because the Puerto Rican's Olympic success created an aura of cockiness the Jazz coach could not stand.