Five of them — point guard Deron Williams, small forward Andrei Kirilenko, power forward Carlos Boozer, center Mehmet Okur and swingman C.J. Miles — have played together for four seasons now, and tonight at Denver they will start their fifth.

Two others — swingman Ronnie Brewer and power forward Paul Millsap — have been along for each of the last three, all playoff seasons.

And nine of the 13 active players on the Utah Jazz's roster for 2009-10 have never played for another NBA franchise, with the four exceptions — Boozer, Okur, Kyle Korver and Ronnie Price — all having worked for just one other.

If these guys don't know each other by now — rest in peace, Larry Miller — they never will.

"We know our stuff inside and out," Boozer said. "We've been doing it for a long time, and we'll just continue to get better at it."

How long the unity lasts remains to be seen.

But for now, they're familiar faces indeed, and as far as the most with the Jazz are concerned that's a positive.

"You look at all the good teams in the NBA, they all have a core of players who've been around and have been together for a while," said Price, the Utah Valley product who was watching from Orem as Boozer's and Okur's Jazz careers got under way and Kirilenko's was in full bloom.

"You very rarely see a team who just all of a sudden was put together and are good," he added. "So I think we have an advantage."

Boston's Kevin Garnett/Ray Allen/Paul Pierce piece-it-together-by-acquiring-All-Stars-from-elsewhere title season of 2008 notwithstanding, consider: John Stockton and Karl Malone needed seven seasons together before they got to the Western Conference finals, and it was only in their 12th season as a tandem that they finally got to the NBA Finals.

The Jazz got to the conference finals in just their second season with centerpieces Williams, Kirilenko, Boozer and Okur together, but — amid the likelihood at least one from that foursome will be gone next season — it's scary to think they have nine to go if it takes as long for them to get to the Finals as did for two franchise icons.

If there's a saving grace, though, it's that a holdover coach and the point who makes it all go tend to think decidedly alike.

"We want the same thing, and that's to win ballgames," Williams said of he and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan. "I know how bad he wants to win a championship before he retires, so we're definitely on the same page."