I hate all of this talk. I hate to think that AK will be wearing another uniform going into next season. I really hate that it has come to this. I have a couple of thoughts…

Number one:

If I am Larry Miller and I have to make a choice between Jerry Sloan and Andrei Kirilenko I am choosing AK. I would not have said this five years ago, as I tend to agree with the Millers philosophy of protecting your coach, but it is not five years ago. Isn’t Sloan the guy that will not commit to coaching the team beyond the next season? Isn’t he the guy that says he may wake up one morning and decide that coaching is no longer for him? Every offseason we wonder if he is going to retire and if he is honest, he would tell you that he wonders the same thing.

The question is: why would we trade one of the most unique talents in the league to protect a coach that may or may not be around next year? Nobody talks about this and it drives me nuts. Furthermore, I believe that with the right coach the Jazz, as they are presently constituted, have a serious chance of winning it all.

I am a realist though, and I know that Sloan is not going anywhere.

Number two: I think Jazz fans are too hard on AK for complaining. People tend to think that making millions of dollars makes you immune to being normal. I contend that it is normal for people to complain when they are not satisfied with their work… especially highly competitive, ultra-driven, professional athletes. Picture that you are on the fast track at your place of employment, that you love what you are doing and that you have shown serious value. You provide leadership, you are the one negotiating and closing the deals. Your company decides that they think you are hot stuff and give you a raise; you are on top of the world.

Can you picture that?

Now imagine that two new guys are hired and you are blatantly demoted. Instead of negotiating and closing deals you are the guy taking notes in the meetings. Not only are your responsibilities taken away, which completely ticks you off, but your boss humiliates you in front of your coworkers, belittling you because of your salary, something that you legitimately earned. No normal person would just let that slide and be a “team player.” You would be miserable and you would let a few people know.
Not only would you let some people know, but you might not try as hard as you used to. After all, your contributions are no longer appreciated like they once were. They may tell you that you are an intrigal part of the team and that your notes are needed to be successful, but no matter how often they tell you that, you know what you are capable of and you long to contribute at that level again.

Andrei is no different. It is not about the money, it is about contributing. At the expense of sounding like Chris Crocker, we should all leave AK alone and let him handle this. I would prefer he not do things through the media, but he is just reacting in his way and everyone reading this, given the circumstances above, would react in their own way.

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.

Should we give in to his demand, or try to work things out again? His value improved after EuroBasket, but if the Jazz are being “forced” to trade him, that hurts his value.

An article in the Salt Lake Tribune had this to say:

“I’ve thought about it a lot and I came to a decision. I want to leave Utah Jazz. The European championships that just ended became sort of a test for me and now I think I know what I want to do.”

More info coming tomorrow. Jazz fans, is this good or bad news? Some could consider this a big loss, while other fans may rejoice at this excuse to trade AK47.

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.
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Layton Shumway is the copy chief for BYU’s Daily Universe newspaper. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.

Seeing as Andrei Kirilenko could be the one piece that makes or breaks our status as contender, here’s his statistics from his first game in the FIBA EuroBasket 2007, playing for his home country Russia.

According to EuroBasket’s homepage, Kirilenko put up impressive numbers in his team’s victory over Serbia:

24 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and “drew seven fouls”

Now, I’m not sure whether he got fouled seven times, or committed seven fouls, but my guess is the latter. Either way, those are most typical Andrei numbers. Keeping in mind that Andrei is our fourth option, he probably won’t get near these stats, but it’s nice to see he’s still interested in filling up the box score (with something other than points).

Unless I missed somebody, no other Jazz players are participating in the tournament.

La287 also maintains Daily Basketball, a round-up of the latest NBA and NCAA sporting news.