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The Fourteen Wings of Hornacek: Part 1 - Playing time

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By AllThatAmar
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Once upon a time there was a wizened old Master, Master Hornacek. He was patient and skilled master who had moved from the hard desert lands where he gained a lot of notoriety towards the eastern lands. He moved back west in the year 1993-1994 -- and from there joined a powerful mountain monastery of the Jazz Clan. There he trained hard, and alongside other great Masters he reached the highest peaks of individual and collective success . . . before moving again to travel the world.

He would return, and has returned. Now he works to train at that same Mountain Monastery. Master Hornacek trains younger players today . . . but today he may have finally found that perfect set of students. He has found the Fourteenth Wing of Hornacek...

If you like old Kung-Fu movies, creative writing, and a long succession of stats . . . click on

Jeff Hornacek:

Jeff Hornacek was the perfect compliment to John Stockton and Karl Malone. Hornacek was a former All-Star (Western Conf All-Star), and dead eye shooter. He was also a combo guard who could play SG and PG, and was capable of driving, passing, getting to the line, and shooting from the outside. He was basically Manu Ginobili -- but on the downswing of his career (check out his USG% AST% if you don't believe me). He could do everything on offense, and play good enough defense to move the Jazz from a second round team towards a team that went to the Western Conference finals five times in seven years. Hornacek was the last time we had a great wing player. His number was #14. Since then the Jazz have added guys, traded guys, and drafted guys.

Right now (depending on the fables -- does Gordan Giricek counts? Does Harpring?) we have reached the Fourteenth Wing under Hornacek.

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The Fourteen Wings:

  • Bryon Russell (1993) -- rookie in Hornacek's first year in Utah
  • Shandon Anderson (1995) -- played with Horny for 3 years
  • Quincy Lewis (1999) -- great college player, supposed to play with Horny and carry the torch
  • Andrei Kirilenko (1999) -- He did not play with Hornacek, but worked with him on his shot
  • DeShawn Stevenson (2000) -- Same as Andrei
  • Sasha Pavlovic (2003) -- potentially could have been a solid player, but left in expansion draft
  • Kirk Snyder (2004) -- only played one year with the Jazz, could have been something under Honry's help
  • C.J. Miles (2005) -- Super young, been part of the Jazz team for 7 years
  • Andre Owens (2005) -- undrafted player who made the team
  • Ronnie Brewer (2006) -- Become a starter but moved in his 4th year
  • Morris Almond (2007) -- the best scorer since Hornacek, but too much ego to be a team player
  • Wesley Matthews (2009) -- undrafted and left after one year
  • Gordon Hayward (2010) and Alec Burks (2011) -- two younger guys with high potential. One of them is the true 14th Wing of Hornacek

The Minutes:

Not every player spent a lot of time with our franchise, and not every player was a team mate or coached by Hornacek. That said . . . let's take a look at their minutes . . .

Player Draft Seas 1 Seas 2 Seas 3 Seas 4 Seas 5 Seas 6 Seas 7 Seas 8 Seas 9 Seas 10
Rnd Pk. Year G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min G Min
1 Bryon Russell Drafted 2 45 1993 67 1121 63 860 59 577 81 2525 82 2219 50 1770 82 2900 78 2473 66 1998
2 Shandon Anderson Drafted 2 54 1996 65 1066 85 1602 50 1072
3 Quincy Lewis Drafted 1 19 1999 74 896 35 402 36 490
4 Andrei Kirilenko Drafted 1 24 1999 82 2151 80 2213 78 2895 41 1349 69 2604 70 2049 72 2217 67 1831 57 1681 64 1999
5 DeShawn Stevenson Drafted 1 23 2000 40 293 67 1134 61 760 54 1511
6 Sasha Pavloic Drafted 1 19 2003 79 1144
7 Kirk Snyder Drafted 1 16 2004 68 906
8 C.J. Miles Drafted 2 34 2005 23 203 37 373 60 689 72 1623 63 1497 78 1969 56 1145
9 Andre Owens Undrafted 2005 23 210
10 Ronnie Brewer Drafted 1 14 2006 56 675 76 2088 81 2605 53 1662
11 Morris Almond Drafted 1 25 2007 9 39 25 255
12 Wesley Matthews Undrafted 2009 82 2025
13 Gordon Hayward Drafted 1 9 2010 72 1218 66 2015
14 Alec Burks Drafted 1 12 2011 59 939

Some guys have played a lot: B-Russ, Andrei, and CJ.

Horny1

And on the same hand, some guys hardly played at all. CJ is a good example, B-Russ got a lot more PT early than CJ did. Hopefully guys like Gordon and Alec continue to get a lot of PT . . . because they are the two guys who may actually be the next great win player, something we haven't' had in a long time.

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I'd go into more info, but I have a huge head ache and I'm going to take it easy. The successive pieces on the 14 Wings of Hornacek will be more interesting. Really. It's a cool Kung-Fu tale, based around Master Hornacek and the journey our players have to go on to become great -- and an analysis on the failures on all the guys inbetween Hornacek and our guys on the team today.

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