I love the AK-47. He is one of the most diverse talents in the league and is certainly one of the most exciting to watch. But alas, all good things come to an end and after enduring a season trapped playing out of position and generally struggling on the floor, Kirilenko appears to be ready to move on and move out.

It is really a shame.

But it is time to move on. There will be Jazz fans that will turn on AK, but it is not his fault. As much as I love coach Sloan, he is culpable in the downfall of Andrei Kirilenko. I have spoken of this many times, but Sloan became less and less trusting of AK, both offensively and defensively, and this season never put him in a position where he could truly display his full skill set.

As I have said before, if you have ever played basketball, pickup or otherwise, and you were never passed the ball, you know that things get very boring in a hurry. Most of us can relate to that. This is essentially what happened to AK. Sloan never ran plays for him and surprisingly, it looks like even Deron Williams bought into gig. AK was the odd man out.

Now we all want him to be professional and just cover his role… but this is not what AK was signed to do. He was signed as a max money player and under that pretence, he is supposed to be the man. That is the way AK views himself. He believes he is capable, at least in some capacity, of carrying the Jazz both offensively and defensively. He is clearly limited in his skill set offensively, but he did average 18 points over the course of a season; a total 10 points per game higher than his scoring average this season.

I for one agree with AK. I believe his beef was legitimate. He should have never taken his disagreements public, but he had a right to complain. And now it looks like he is going to be traded.

It will be sad to see him go, but it certainly makes for a very interesting offseason. Here’s to an exciting summer.