The Kirilenko Conundrum

by colyou on May 3, 2009 10:14 PM MDT Comment 14 comments

Where to begin with A.K.?

I wrote this player review twice, one bashing him and one praising him, so I decided to go somewhere in the middle. At times this season he was brilliant, a game changer who could make the defensive plays we needed in crunch time. At times he was bad, turning the ball over too much and trying too hard. In essence, he defined what this season was all about for the Jazz, wild inconsistency.

This season Andrei moved, without complaint, to the bench and some nights really got our second unit going. He brought leadership and play making ability which was sorely lacking from our bench. A.K., when he is on, does such a great job getting to the basket and getting fouled or dumping in the lane to Millsap that when he isn’t doing it our bench often had no answers. When he took the floor our defense also improved considerably. A.K. is one of the best help defenders in the league and he seemed to change of the mindset of the team. The Jazz usually play more actively when A.K. is on the floor.

He had a strong mid season. He had double digit points in 13 of 14 games in late December mid-January and lead the team in rebounding four times. He got injured in January against Minnesota and never looked the same after coming back even dropping ten pounds (anyone know what this was about?) as the Jazz collapsed like bridge made of straws.

The man makes $15 million this year and gave us averages of 11.6 points, 2.6 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.15 blocks per game this season. This means that Jazz paid $19,329 per point scored or you could say $159,067 per block this season. By comparison Ronnie Brewer made just under $2 million this season and chipped in 13.7 points per game and 3.7 rebounds per game costing the Jazz a measly $1,800 per point. Compare A.K. to a similar player like Josh Smith even and his numbers are still lower, but he makes $5 million more than Smith did this season.

I understand that this is a simplistic (and flawed) view of basketball and I know A.K. brings a lot to the court. I love A.K. when he is in the flow of the game and getting to the rim, blocking shots, and moving the basketball, but other nights he jacks up bad outside shots, dishes out really bad behind the back passes or is practically invisible on the court. On these bad nights, you just have to wonder if paying $15 million shouldn’t get you a little more consistency.

We all remember the bad years where he was the only bright spot on a terrible team. Arroyo and Lopez running the point while possession after possession bogged down, bad character guys like Deshawn Stevenson jacking up bad shots. It was terrible. The only positive thing was A.K. He hustled, made the right plays, played lock down defense if we needed him to. He seemed to love playing for us and we loved him right back.

When A.K. plays like this his contract starts to feel justified. You root for him. You turn to your friends and say "Man, I love A.K.!" He seems to be everywhere on the court and you find yourself thinking how much he means to this team. Then the next night he is replaced by Bizzaro-Kirilenko. After his third turnover by a pass straight into Millsap’s knee or a badly thrown ally-oop your friend looks at you and says "What the Hell is Andrei doing?" It makes you start to wonder if you should be mad at him, especially after the crying and whining during the Houston series two years ago. This is the guy we signed to a max contract? It seems like a bank robbery or maybe he was replaced by one of the lizard people living under the Great Salt Lake.

As I said I love A.K. sometimes and I hate him sometimes, but there is no question his contract is killing us. He doesn’t deserve $17 million next season and if Boozer doesn’t leave then we could be in a real bind. I think Andrei should donate $7 million to Millsap next year to make sure Paul sticks around.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.

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i have to say that

when you volunteered to do ak’s player recap and said that you had a lot of stuff to get off your chest, i was dreading what you would write (being the ak that i am). but i think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with your post. what ak brings to the floor can and often is the deciding factor between a win and a loss, and it’s no surprise that if you take a look at the jazz’s top efficiency lineups, ak is in all of them.

but wildly inconsistent is exactly what he is. part of that can be chalked up to all the injuries, different lineups, and no one really having a good idea of what their role is that we saw this year, but part of that is definitely on ak individually.

as for his contract, yes it is killing us. but i really cannot complain about it because it made a lot more sense at the time the jazz offered it to him, and none of us would have turned it down and said “hey, you’re giving me too much.” it is what it is, that’s all.

by moni on May 3, 2009 10:42 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

So Boozer is an enigma and Kirilenko is a conundrum and they are both fantastic descriptions.

So why were we confused at the inconsistency of our team this year?

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on May 4, 2009 6:31 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

excellent point.

by moni on May 4, 2009 7:55 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

lets not forget

his epic flop this season – everyone remember that? I didn’t think he had it in him! You see – he is developing new talents all the time. ;-)

by MelMan2002 on May 4, 2009 9:28 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Bizarro Kirilenko

That one’s going in the repertoire.

Nice piece.

by Patrick517 on May 4, 2009 2:00 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Remember when Bill Simmons described AK

as one of two players he would pay extra to see in person? That was during that Arroyo year, pre-knee surgery, pre-All-Star contract….

I’m not sure how or why, but I think we can blame Masha for some of this. I’ll think that one through and figure it out.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on May 4, 2009 3:55 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

if anything

I think Masha is instrumental in AK actually working things out a bit with Sloan during the off-season of 2006-2007 — her command of russian and english surpasses the individual skills of either side of the argument. she does seem super outspoken though. jason williams wrote a book years ago (before he shot his limo driver) and it was a great look at the inner workings of NBA teams — things fans never really see. he said that the heighest paid player’s wife, or star player’s wife felt like the star of the player’s wives — and behaved as such. I can totally see Masha feeling this way.

Crazy as she is, I still think that she’s a steadying influence on Andrei (who may have developed some sense of codependency with her when in the USA — but that’s just my masters in psych talking).

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 4, 2009 6:27 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

the part about masha being a steadying influence

and her role in helping ak work things out with jerry is definitely true, especially after reading the article that SI did on them a few months ago. i kinda like that she always speaks her mind.

i wonder how long before we start feeling amy williams’ influence? ;-)

by moni on May 4, 2009 9:33 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

hmmmmm.....

I think she’s so tantalizing (to him) that he can’t concentrate on ball.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on May 4, 2009 10:53 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

i guess that also explains memo's focus, or lack of

by moni on May 5, 2009 1:02 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

If I were Memo

I wouldn’t be able to function at all.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on May 5, 2009 9:13 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ya right donation...

Thats like 7/17th of your paycheck (41%).

Suppose ESPN reads this article, thinks you are an good sports writer and hires you paying lets say $100k/year guranteed for 7 years. Then, suddenly your quality of articles went down. Someday you write nice stuff and some day you write crap.

Then there is a new intern, Mr. Paul M. Who is an excellent writer and now looking for a real job. ESPN does not have money to pay Paul as a real employee. Yahoo sports and CNN SI have their eye on Paul. So ESPN tells you, can you take your $41k and give it to Paul. Are you going to do it?

I thought so!!!!

by iLoveBooks100per on May 4, 2009 5:32 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs