What's up with Andrei?

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

What's up with Andrei?
Jazz forward's numbers, playing time have fallen off
By Ailene Voisin
Sacramento Bee
Sunday, April 8, 2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. ─ He wants more touches, more shots, more love.

He wants to be more than he is.

Cultural differences aside, Andrei Kirilenko raps like Ron Artest with a
Russian accent.

"I want to be somebody who is an all-around player," the slumping Utah Jazz
forward said before Friday's game at Arco Arena, "but you can't pass the ball
with no ball."

So what is it with these defensive geniuses? Isn't it enough to be regarded
as one of the most unique defenders in the modern era? To dictate the outcome
of games by clogging the freeway to the basket? They have to be brilliant in
math and science and social studies?

Maybe the two small forwards ─ and they were matched against each other
until Kirilenko departed with a sprained left thumb ─ belong together. While
Artest has dealt with off-court issues and a disappointing Kings season,
Kirilenko has struggled with his game and/or approach to his game, the vastly
improved Jazz forcing him to play catch-up. Jerry Sloan's club already has
clinched a division title and playoff berth for the first time in four years,
and to the surprise of many, done so while their one-time All-Star endures an
erratic, admittedly unfulfilling season.

Remember the old Andrei?

Spiked hair? Chiseled features? Angular frame?

Great expectations?

Just asking. Everyone is. The player who led his team in scoring, rebounding,
steals, blocks, minutes and floor burns in 2003-04, who led the league in
blocks per game that same year and earned a hefty contract extension, has
morphed from invaluable presence into NBA mystery man. His rebounds, steals
and blocks ─ always the pertinent numbers for Kirilenko ─ have dipped
appreciably, his minutes tumbling accordingly. Opposing scouts whose reports
once prominently featured the St. Petersburg, Russia, native, a gangly,
6-foot-9 ensemble of arms and legs, currently lavish more attention on
starters Deron Williams, Mehmut Okur and Carlos Boozer, all of whom are more
polished, precise offensive performers.

"Every young player goes through a tough stretch," said Sloan, the Jazz coach
who famously refuses to spoon-feed or do diapers, "and it all depends on how
you come out of it. Andrei is shooting poorly. He's struggling with his
confidence. We don't play a wide-open game, which would probably be better
for him. We're also playing him at three (small forward) because of Boozer,
and it was a little bit easier for him in the past to play the four (power
forward). But he hasn't been as active (defensively), and that's something he
has to work through. He has always been a hustle player."

At his best, say, while he hustled throughout his first five seasons,
Kirilenko, 26, was as one of the NBA's most exuberant, energetic performers,
as well as one of its most engaging personalities. In essence, Andrei was an
attitude, a coltish figure whose length and athleticism, coupled with his
boyish demeanor, invigorated aging veterans John Stockton and Karl Malone.
More importantly was his romancing of Sloan, who found himself similarly
disarmed by the rookie's style, as well as his sense of style.

On the court, Kirilenko moved constantly, elevated for long rebounds, tumbled
into the front row for loose balls and swooped in like a bird for stunning
one-handed deflections and rejections. Off the court, he displayed a familiar
personality, his uncensored comments seeming to mirror his play. His humor is
reminiscent of Vlade Divac; while Divac would chat amiably about, say, his
preferred choice of underwear (none), it was Kirilenko who revealed that his
wife would allow him to stray from the marital bed for one night a year.

Lately, though, Andrei has been a little less liberal with his inner
thoughts. Lately, he can't seem to help himself, on or off the court.

"When you don't play," he said, glumly, "of course you lose confidence. When
you sit on the bench, how can you improve? I am playing much less minutes.
Why is my time reduced? That is not a question for me. That is for coach.
Jerry (Sloan) gives me the standard answer. I need to run the floor. I need
to dive for the ball. I need to play defense. I made my point in the past,
but it doesn't seem to matter. Now I am just being professional, trying to
think only of the team and the playoffs. You can't say too much when your
team is winning."


                http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660209933,00.html  

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