Nor does Sloan care, or need, to hear from Kirilenko that he indeed wants to stay in Utah.

"My job is to coach whoever is here," he said. "And that's the way we'll do it. That hasn't changed.

"You just have to play somebody else if he's not happy, or if something doesn't work out. That's the only thing I can do," Sloan added. "I have (backup small forward) Matt Harpring, so I played Matt some. I can't wait on him (Kirilenko) to say, 'OK, I've got another day to work on my shooting to get better.' You take away his layups and stuff, and what does he shoot from the field? I don't mean that in a negative way. He's just got to work a little harder on his shooting. That's what I told him when we left."

Sloan said Kirilenko responded well to that challenge during his annual end-of-the-season exit interview: "He seemed to be fine."

That apparently was enough for Sloan, a proponent of roster continuity, to decide Kirilenko should return next season.

"You know, we put a group of guys together, and sometimes it don't work the first time. But you get rid of them, you get something worse. You get something where nothing works," the Jazz coach said. "I don't like the idea of trading guys. I like to hopefully work with the guys a little bit, and we go through some battles, and pretty soon they understand, 'We're not against you.'

"You've got to keep guys and let them have a chance to play," Sloan added. "That's always been my feeling — unless there's a definite conflict. And who knows? Maybe there are some here. Time only will tell."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com