"I don't see us changing everything in the world for Andrei Kirilenko," he said. "I don't see any team in the league doing that.

"He's got to come and play. I mean, when he doesn't come and play hard, he can blame it on whatever he wants — but all I can say is what I see on the floor. And that's that there are some times he played great. We loved the way when he plays great. And he can be good all the time — if he works at it.

"We just expect him to play hard, try to do what we're trying to do, like we would any player," Sloan added. "And anything other than that, then I failed him."

The Jazz coach seemed skeptical when asked if he's confident Kirilenko is capable of meeting those expectations.

"I don't think anybody would be confident in him," he said, "because he's struggled all year long with it.

"After he made the All-Star team (in 2004)," Sloan added, "he's basically struggled with what we've tried to do with our team — and it's the same thing we did when he was in the All-Star Game, when he was an All-Star. He doesn't see it that way."

Sloan clearly was unhappy that in one of the Sport Express Daily reports he was essentially called out by Kirilenko for being one of the chief sources of the 26-year-old Russian's many woes.

But he did offer potential solutions.

"Yeah, he wants to score more. But, No. 1, to be able to score, you've got to work on your shooting," Sloan said. "I mean ... I don't have any problem with him taking shots. I don't have any problem with anybody taking shots. But they have to make them once in a while in order to get confidence.

"He takes a shot that comes out of our offense when he shoots it, I don't have a problem with that. He looks very good and comfortable when he shoots those shots. It's when he comes out and holds, and stands, and doesn't really seem to know where he's going — instead of catching and make your decision to shoot, or get into the offense and finish the offense.

"It's fairly simple, from what I've seen," Sloan added after a season in which Kirilenko shot a career-low 21.3 percent from 3-point range. "He needs to work on his shooting, and then his confidence will be there. And (then) when he gets shots, he can take the same shots he took whenever he was on the All-Star team, and they go in. He made 3-point shots that year (hitting 33.8 percent). ... There was no problem. But when you don't make shots, then it becomes my fault."

Sloan's other suggestion is less basketball-specific.

"I think Andrei will be fine. If he likes to win," he said. "The bottom line is how much do you like to win? That's all I have to be concerned about. I don't care who scores."