About the only basketball that’s been going on these days is over in Europe, where Andrei Kirilenko and his Russian comrades upset Spain in the title game of the FIBA EuroBasket tournament Sunday. Kirilenko was named MVP of the tournament after averaging 18 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists over 9 games. What’s more, he’s really happy about it, as TrueHoop reports.

And why shouldn’t he be? It’s a bigger achievement (qualifying for the Olympics and beating a heavily favored Spanish team) than anything he’s yet done with the Jazz (except perhaps his only All-Star appearance). It’s got to be especially sweet considering the way 2006-07 went for him and his role on the Jazz. Clearly, the AK-47 can still play (granted, against weaker competition, but still).

The Painted Area has a great post about Kirilenko’s performance in the tournament, including this glowing description:

Kirilenko did it all offensively: jumpers, turnaround jumpers, post-ups, and driving lay-ins. His key sequence of the second half came in the third quarter, after Lithuania made a run to tie the game at 52, and they seemed ready to take the momentum away from Russia. But AK47 single-handedly sparked a 8-0 run with a three-pointer, then on the next offensive possession he snaked his way to a falling down lay-in plus the foul. Then on the ensuing defensive possession AK made a gigantic block on a Kleiza dunk attempt, which led into a J.R. Holden bucket to all-of-a-sudden make the game 60-52. Huge sequence for Russia. But that was not it for AK; he added some more big plays in the fourth when Lithuania made a few more mini-runs. Andrei ended the day with 29 points on 10/14 (8/11 fts), eight rebounds (4 off), three steals, and three blocks. Jeezum Frickin’ Crow.

All this begs the question: what do we do with Andrei? The recent report from the Arizona Republic shows that, even if it was in theory only, AK-47 still commands some decent trade value. The word around the league is that Andrei is especially coveted by teams that run a wide-open style of offense — like the Suns, or the Warriors, and rather un-like our own Jazz. But as this summer has shown, even if teams are interested in Andrei: The Player, they’re terrified of Andrei: The Contract. He’s not going anywhere, and this tournament has shown that we’d be crazy to consider it.

So we play him. But how? And where? It’s easy to see that in a setting where Andrei can demand the ball and establish the offense (as with Russia, or with the Jazz in 2004), he can and will thrive. He’s simply the kind of player that needs contact with the ball to get in the flow of the game offensively. With Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur around, he’ll never get the kinds of touches he craves, and when he does get the ball, he’ll freak out and take ill-advised shots or spastic drives resulting in charging calls or turnovers. (By the way, for those of you who were wondering, Memo averaged 10 points and nearly 8 boards a game for Turkey in EuroBasket. Decent numbers, but hardly indicative of an NBA All-Star. Hmmmm…)

Here’s my proposal: move Andrei to the bench.

Before anyone freaks out, consider this: the Jazz bench could definitely use the help. (I can’t find a team-by-team comparison of bench scoring from last season — if any Hollinger-type stat head out there can track that down, I’d appreciate it.) There were periods last year where I would look at the team the Jazz had on the floor and marvel that we expected to score at all. A team of Jason Hart, Gordan Giricek, Matt Harpring, Paul Millsap and Jarron Collins isn’t going to intimidate anyone.

Also consider that the Spurs use Manu Ginobili off the bench to tremendous effect. He doesn’t start, but he gets in the game early, leads the scoring for the second unit as their go-to option, and gets warmed up so that, by the end of the game, he’s confident and in the flow and can put up those clutch flops, er, shots the Spurs count on him for. I can see Andrei having a similar impact.

So let’s say the Jazz start a lineup of D-Will, either Mo Nuts or Gira, Ronnie Brewer or Paul Millsap at the 3, Boozer and Okur. Plenty of scoring, a designated gunner, an energy defensive guy in Brewer, and the size to crash the boards.

Now our second unit looks like this: Jason Hart or Ronnie Price, Matt Harpring (or Mo Nuts or Gira), Paul Millsap or Ronnie Brewer, Andrei Kirilenko, and Jarron Collins (or, dare I hope, if he develops fast enough, Kyrylo Fesenko). Now Andrei’s the primary offensive option out of that group, with plenty of room to roam in the post (WHERE HE BELONGS). Now the Jazz suffer less of a let-down when D-Will and Boozer are out of the game. Now Andrei gets his touches and has the energy and confidence to come in at the end of the game and do his thing. Where is the downside to this?

Being a bench player doesn’t mean sacrificing minutes (look at Ginobili). It does mean that Andrei has to accept a non-starting role. But the point is, he will get more touches, more points, and feel better about himself as the focal point of the second unit than as a fourth-option afterthought starter. He’s too talented (and too expensive) to let him suffer through another year like last year. This needs to happen.
—————————————————
Layton Shumway is the copy chief for BYU’s Daily Universe newspaper. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.

Tracy McGrady: So emo.

I can’t believe the Jazz pulled it off. Two wins in a very hostile environment to open the series (and basically close it, since we’re headed back to Salt Lake City for Games 3 and 4). I was so worried coming into the series that the Jazz would choke, that the Rockets would be so fired up in search of revenge that we would get blown out on the road, that McGrady would finally throw off the doubters and win through. None of these things have happened, or are going to happen. The Jazz will win this series. It’s done.

And it’s on the broad shoulders (and bruised body) of Deron Williams that it is done. At first glance, his numbers don’t overwhelm — 22 points, five assists, two blocks, one rebound, three turnovers — but when you consider the injuries he’s been fighting, the swarming Rockets defense (which has been much better than advertised, and it was advertised as pretty damn good), AND the cheap shot moving screen/shoulder from Aaron Brooks that sent D-Will to the locker room… well, his performance has been nothing short of impressive. I love the way he plays the game of basketball. There’s no other way to put it.

I’ve been impressed with the whole Utah team, mostly because they’re playing AS A TEAM. Boozer hasn’t been on his A-game, but has still found ways to make a difference. Memo was a monster tonight (16 and 16), including a pretty monstrous foul on a driving Luis Scola (surely nothing worse than Scola had been doing all game, but I still don’t like to see it.) Ronnie Brewer bounced back with a nice outing. Kirilenko’s point production went way down, but he made up for it with eight boards, four assists, and one heck of an acting job on the key play of the game, negating Bobby Jackson’s tying 3-pointer.

(Yes, I admit — AK flopped. He flopped big time. But I don’t feel bad. Because flopping was the only way to get the attention of this officiating crew, who was letting murder go on both ends. Terrible job all around, boys. Hope you enjoy the game tape.)

And I think this cements, for good and all, the fact that Tracy McGrady, for all his amazing gifts, lacks that killer SOMETHING that all truly great players have, that takes them to another level when they really need to. Kobe has it. LeBron has it. Sheed has it when he feels like it. Dirk may or may not have it — the jury’s still out. T-Mac? Not so much. And that really is sad, because I have nothing against him as a player — his game is beautiful, he tries to get his teammates involved, he’s not a chest-thumping idiot. I’d like to see him get further into the playoffs. Maybe he’s just been unlucky. Maybe in later rounds of the playoffs, he would dig deep and find that SOMETHING (I don’t know what else to call it) and put all doubts to rest. But I just don’t think he has that. Not any more.

Ah well. Game 3 in SLC on Thursday. Bring the noise.

Recaps:
Deseret Morning News
Salt Lake Tribune
ESPN/Associated Press (with video highlights)
Houston Chronicle

Blogness:
My Utah Jazz
Basketball John
Biased Fan
Ross Siler/SL Trib
The Dream Shake

Thank goodness.

Games like this are surely not good for my health. With Denver, it always seems to get interesting, one way or another.

It never should have gotten this interesting, though. The way we played in the second quarter, we should have walked away with another easy victory. It’s funny — last season, the Jazz were the comeback kids, who could resurface from any depth to compete in any game. This year, it’s the opposite: we can’t seem to close the door, and we let teams hang around that really shouldn’t. We play down to the level of our competition. And I have no doubt that it has cost us a few ball games.

We played down to the Nuggets’ level last night, too, in more ways than one. We let the game get far too physical, after Kenyon Martin’s third-quarter flagrant foul that sent Ronnie Brewer to the locker room. It set off an undesirable chain of reactions, including Matt Harpring elbowing K-Mart in the midsection, Eduardo Najera pulling Harpring down on top of him after a foul (and immediately shoving him off), and Harpring sparring with Carmelo Anthony (eventually leading to ‘Melo fouling out near the end of the game). Okay, so maybe they weren’t all that undesirable. But considering that the increased level of physicality led to Memo and Millsap fouling out too, I’m not sure it was the best option.

I refuse to call the Nuggets “thugs,” a word many have used to describe them and other teams. I think the term carries connotations that don’t really apply to the way an athlete plays basketball. But I don’t like playing Denver, because I don’t like the physicality it brings out in the Jazz. I don’t like hearing K-Mart yell “NO LAYUPS!!” as he clotheslines Ronnie Brewer. I don’t like Allen Iverson putting his head down and throwing himself towards the hoop in order to get to the foul line. I don’t like Harpring trading elbows with Martin and ‘Melo, and I don’t like Najera’s brutish behavior in retaliation. I consider these, on the whole, to be Bad Things.

But I loved how the Jazz responded, once they understood how the game was going to be played. I loved Deron Williams taking the ball right at Marcus Camby on the fast break. I loved that Memo actually played hard enough to earn a foul-out, something he rarely does. I loved that the team rallied and stayed strong despite an abysmal night from Carlos Boozer, who hasn’t played well since he was announced as an All-Star. I loved how Kyle Korver came back from a rough second half to nail the big shots down the stretch. I feel like I learned a lot about the Jazz last night, and how this team can overcome adversity.

So the game probably wasn’t good for my health. But I think it was great for the health of the Utah Jazz. So I’ll take it. Ten straight and counting.

I never thought I would see this man looking so smug. 41 points and 9 rebounds later… yup, pretty smug.

For various reasons, including me just being really, really busy with other stuff in my life (you know, stuff I actually get paid for), I haven’t posted in a long while. But I can’t stay silent after last night’s game. It was pure torture, seeing that grinning bastard sprinting like a cheetah down the court on fast breaks, rolling past Memo and Boozer like they weren’t there, throwing down dunks and 3-pointers with equal aplomb, kneeing Kyle Korver (the one Jazzman who looked like he came to play last night) in the back after a hard foul… I just couldn’t take it. It was the first time I’d turned off a game before the final buzzer in a long time.

There are serious issues with this Jazz team, issues that I thought were starting to resolve after Gordan Giricek got his pink slip and Korver brought a burst of enthusiasm to the squad. I allowed myself to ignore these issues during Utah’s four-game winning streak. I hoped that racking up some wins would help the team turn the corner. It hasn’t. We still can’t win on the road, we still can’t play defense at all, we still fade in the second half… I can’t even list all the things that bother me about this team, even if we are still four games over .500.

The lack of defense is what bothers me more than anything. This team can play defense when pressed. We have good defenders — Ronnie Brewer, Deron Williams, Paul Millsap. Korver has been a surprisingly decent defender, despite his reputation. Memo can body up big men when he wants to. It’s not that we’re not capable. We are.

The funny thing is, any observer can point to each individual player and tell you why that player is not playing quality defense.

For D-Will, Okur and Boozer, it’s because they think too much about the offensive end of the court. (D-Will, especially, takes it personally when someone scores on him, but his way of getting revenge is to score right back, not to step it up and get the steal or the charge next time defensively.)

For AK-47, it’s because he still loves to snipe from the back side in hopes of getting a block. He sometimes deliberately lets his man past him just so he can wind up for the swat. It’s entertaining to watch, but it isn’t good defense.

For Ronnie Brewer, it’s because he’s not getting along with Jerry Sloan (did anyone see their spat last night?), plus he’s terrified he’s going to get pulled from the game as soon as he makes a mistake (which guarantees he will screw up, which guarantees he’s going to get the hook). Ditto for CJ Miles.

For Paul Millsap, it’s because he lets stupid foul calls get in his head, which makes him play tentatively. He’s still not getting the benefit of the doubt from refs, and gets two or three iffy calls a night, and they really affect him.

Korver, Harpring, Hart and Collins do the best they can, but the fact of the matter is that all of them are too slow. (although I have loved Korver’s effort so far. Also, Collins and Hart blow.)

So you can find all of these problems. They’re real. They’re specific. They can be solved, or at least accounted for. But that isn’t the overriding issue.

Heart. Confidence. Toughness. Determination. Guts. That’s what this team is lacking. We had it last year during the playoffs. We don’t have it now. I don’t know where it went. But until we get it back, this Jazz team is going nowhere. Except the lottery.

—————————–
Layton Shumway is the copy chief for Brigham Young University’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.

McSean hit this story late last night in his post. I heard about it too but wanted to wait until the media picked up the story to verify its legitimacy. Well, it seems pretty legitimate now. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that this blog post (translated into English by the Trib here) was indeed written by Andrei Kirilenko, and that his demands are real.

So what do the Jazz do? The organization hasn’t yet responded to Andrei’s remarks, except to say that they expect him in camp on October 1. It’s entirely possible that the Jazz will sit Andrei on the bench all year rather than make a move. (Hey, my “move Andrei to the second unit” post doesn’t look so ridiculous now!)

On the other hand, if they comply with AK’s request, there’s a major problem: every single NBA team now knows they have the Jazz over a barrel. By making the request public, AK has guaranteed that the Jazz will not get market value in return for him, even though that market value has risen slightly with his EuroBasket performance. Kirilenko was once an All-Star caliber player, and perhaps can be again. But he has decided not to be one with the Jazz, and the Jazz can’t expect an All-Star level player in return.

And even if they managed to get one (like, for example, Shawn Marion, or Antawn Jamison), this team basically already has three All-Stars. Who’s to say they wouldn’t be just as frustrated as Kirilenko is now? I mean, Shawn Marion plays with Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns, and he wants to see more of the ball. That team shares the ball more than anyone. You think it’s going to be better for him in Utah? At some point, there’s simply not enough ball to go around.

Here’s the other issue: Looming in the not-so-distant future is the re-signing of Deron Williams, and a year after that, Carlos Boozer, and a year after that, Mehmet Okur. This means the Jazz are going to need a whole heap of cash at the ready if they want to keep this core together (which they do, and rightly so, because they’re young and talented and play beautifully together). This might be a blessing in disguise, to get Andrei’s contract off the books and find some useful, less expensive role players to fill his spot. Except that, to trade an expensive contract, you have to take on an expensive contract in return. There’s also the dreaded luxury tax to consider, which Larry Miller will never, ever pay.

The answer may be to find a willing trading partner who’s got a fat expiring contract to offer, along with draft picks and role players. ESPN’s Trade Machine will be an invaluable tool in crafting possible deals. One that I’m looking at now is to send Andrei to Minnesota for Theo Ratliff’s expiring contract, a couple of players like Ryan Gomes or Craig Smith, and a draft pick. (The deal doesn’t work on the Machine now because of 2-month trade restrictions on Ratliff and Gomes, but those will lift.) At first glance, that looks awful — a former and potential All-Star for two marginal players and a 35-year-old, injury-prone shot blocker? — but when you realize that it will save the Jazz almost $12 million, money they can use in re-signing the stars they have and perhaps attracting more, it doesn’t seem so awful.

The point is this: if the Jazz do decide to comply with Andrei’s trade demand, they have to know they’re not going to get more than 30 or 40 cents on the dollar for him. This current team was built on solid draft picks (Williams, Millsap, Collins, Brewer, Almond, Fesenko) and free-agent signings (Boozer, Okur, Harpring, Giricek). I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for the Jazz to put themselves in a position to get more of both. I’m less concerned about what we get in the trade itself and more concerned with what the result will be. Let’s bite the bullet and take our cap space and our role players and bid Andrei farewell. At this point, regardless of whose fault this mess is, it might be the best thing for everyone.

With the 25th pick in the 2007 NBA draft, the Utah Jazz select…

Morris Almond, from Rice University.

Jazz fans got the man they wanted here (as evidenced by the fans at the ESA). Almond is a 6-6, 215 lb. shooting guard who shot over 45 percent on 3-pointers last season, while averaging 26 points a game for the Owls in Conference USA (a somewhat weak conference except for Memphis). According to Sloan, Almond’s 3-point shooting is his “one great skill”, which has pundits like Gordon Monson at the Tribune worried. But outside shooting was exactly what the Jazz lacked in these recent playoffs — someone to spread the floor so teams couldn’t pack the lane against Boozer’s low-post game and Williams on dribble penetration. If Almond is at all an improvement over Gordan Giricek (and really, how could he NOT be), he’ll be worth the pick.

(I will say, Monson makes a decent point, and Brad Rock says similar things in today’s Deseret News — the Jazz have drafted so many shooting guards recently, what makes anyone think this one will be different? Because he’s saying all the right things? Because he sucks up to Matt Harpring? Big deal. Any rookie who gets drafted by the Jazz knows he’s got to pay lip service to Mr. John Deere. Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Miles have said all the right things, too, and they haven’t gotten the burn we think they deserve, even though C.J. and Dee Brown have been given qualifying offers to stay with the Jazz. Couple this with the very likely possibility that the Jazz will make a run at Morris Peterson of the Raptors, who would instantly be the starter if he came to Utah, and things are getting awfully crowded at the 2-spot. Will Almond get a chance to prove himself? We can only hope.)

In the second round, the Jazz took Herbert Hill from Providence with the 55th pick. ESPN’s John Hollinger liked him, but apparently Kevin O’Connor didn’t, because he swapped Hill to Philadelphia for…

Kyrylo Fesenko, from Ukraine.

I know that half of you are saying, “Who?” and the other half of you are remembering that one Seinfeld episode where Kramer plays Risk on the subway. (”Ukraine not weak!”) But really, this is an interesting move. Fesenko was considered borderline first-round talent. In fact, the Pistons liked him so much, they tried to keep him from working out with other teams, hoping that no one would notice him. But “Fess,” as he likes to be called, wasn’t born yesterday, and scheduled several other workouts, including one in the SLC. And while Jazz staff didn’t get to see him match his 6-foot-11, 20-year-old self against other low-post players, he apparently made enough of an impression for the Jazz to trade for him. For his part, he said he liked Salt Lake City, called the atmosphere “healthy” (wait till a winter inversion, brother) and seemed excited about the prospect of playing here.

Fesenko has quite a lot of talent and athleticism, raw as he may be. But if the language issues and cultural difficulties of the NBA are still plaguing Andrei Kirilenko (as his wife Masha suggested during the Houston series), heaven help poor Kyrylo. This from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, via Detroit Bad Boys:

About halfway through the 70-minute workout, Bucks assistant coach Brian James told the players he wanted them to “put the ball on the floor,” meaning take a dribble before shooting. Fesenko was first up, and after taking a pass near the baseline, he softly set the ball on the court and walked away looking puzzled as if to say, “Why did you want me to do that?”

After pausing to take in what happened, the coaches, including head coach Terry Stott and Dave Babcock, the Bucks’ director of player personnel, broke into laughter.

“Well, he’s coachable,” James said as another coach explained to Fesenko what the jargon meant. “He did exactly what I told him to do.”

Fesenko smiled about it but did not seem to think it was as amusing.

“I just don’t understand,” he said in rough English. “He told me to put it down. I don’t know what it means.”

The last drill of the workout was a two-on-two, full-court game. When it was announced that the next team to score won, Fesenko, who was taking out the ball under the far baseline, threw it off Grier’s backside, hopped back inbounds and raced down for the dunk.

The other players, including teammate Bennerman, watched in confusion. The coaches threw up their hands, laughed again and counted the point as Fesenko walked back as if nothing was unusual.

No no no no no no no no. Where Terry Stott laughs, Jerry Sloan will spew profanity. Ugh. Somebody get that boy an English tutor.

(The thought does occur, though, maybe getting another guy who speaks Russian will cheer AK-47 up a bit.)

It remains to be seen whether the Jazz will bring Fesenko straight over, or stash him with his Ukrainian team for another year or two and let him develop. We’ll keep you updated.

At the least, the new draft picks should make for an interesting Rocky Mountain Revue this summer. Can’t wait to see them on the court.
———————————-
Layton Shumway is the copy chief for BYU’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.

It’s all down to this.

One game, one shot to get a win in the one place we haven’t had one since Basketball John was wearing number 12. We win tonight or it’s over.

And we may have to do it without Deron Williams and Derek Fisher, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Which would make a herculean task just plain impossible.

There’s a lot of things that have to go right for the Jazz to get the win tonight. Everyone’s got a different opinion. Tony Mejia of CBS Sportsline says that the lack of production from Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko cannot continue if the Jazz are to win. Scoop Jackson of ESPN says the Jazz’s hopes rest on the wide shoulders of Carlos Boozer. Boozer, meanwhile, says he needs help from the whole team, specifically the bench. (If D-Will and Fish can’t go, this is especially true — step right up, Dee Brown.)

Me? I’d go with “all of the above.” We’re going to have to play a near-perfect game to get this win, and we’ll probably need a healthy dose of luck into the bargain. But I see at least a few things that are absolutely vital:

1) Memo must be money.
We have no hope without his shooting, because he’s the only player on the Jazz roster aside from Williams (and sometimes Fisher) who has proven that he can hit the clutch 3-pointer. We have missed that all season. We can’t stretch San Antonio away from Boozer and the paint if we have no outside threat. Memo always says he has confidence in his shot. Well, he better have enough to make them tonight.

2) The Beast must remove his leash.
Listen, the Spurs are a superb defensive team, and all credit should be given to their efforts in shutting down Carlos Boozer in the fourth quarter of Game 4. But this man has the strength and finesse to be aggressive and take matters into his own hands. For goodness’ sake, the man didn’t shoot a single free throw in Game 4. That can’t happen again. Be strong, Carlos. It’s on you.

3) No stupid fouls.
I was really frustrated when I wrote my Game 4 recap on Monday night. After reading pretty much everything about the game from different national sources, I think I agree with the consensus they came to: flops or not, Steve Javie or not, the Jazz should have been more intelligent in their defense. San Antonio really did nothing from the outside in the fourth quarter — they simply lowered their heads and muscled their way to the line. We can’t guard Parker and Ginobili so closely on the perimeter or they will either blow past us or get the foul, or both. Take a step back, make sure you don’t get burned, and force Parker and Ginobili to shoot from the outside. Then adjust accordingly.

4) Keep your cool.
The entire Jazz organization — fans included — needs to regain its composure after the Game 4 technical/debris debacle. The Spurs are so good, so implacable, so unnervingly consistent that it’s easy to get rattled. We can’t afford that tonight.

Add your keys to tonight’s game below. Game 5 tips off at 7 p.m. MDT on ESPN. Good luck, gentlemen. We’ll need it.