Jazz look to get A.K. involved

BOISE — So unhappy Andrei Kirilenko wants to be a more integral part of the offense.

Fine, then. Let's do it.

That's the approach the Jazz talked about taking Tuesday, their opening day of training camp at Boise State University here.

"We're going to do the best we can," assistant coach Phil Johnson said, "to involve him in the offense."

But how?

How do the Jazz go about getting more from, and giving more to, a not-exactly-sharpshooting starting small forward who at best is a fourth scoring option behind power forward Carlos Boozer, center Mehmet Okur and point guard Deron Williams?

Much of the burden, teammates suggested, will fall on Kirilenko himself.

"Andrei is a tremendously talented player. ... The biggest thing now," backup center Jarron Collins said, "is finding a way to get the best out of him."

"Andrei is good enough to figure that out. I mean, there were games last year where he was involved. ... The play-calling wasn't different. The game of basketball wasn't different," backup small forward Matt Harpring added. "So you've got to look at film, and look at yourself, and be like, 'OK, what was I doing when I was doing this?' I mean, I know when I have a bad game I go look at film from when I was playing better and say, 'What did I do in this game different?' That's how you get better as a player."

Still, there may be ways to tweak the offense just enough that Kirilenko will not feel forgotten.

Even Williams, who has admitted to not passing to Kirilenko at times last season because other teammates were working harder, recently went to Sloan suggesting as much.

One is to allow him to handle the ball more out of the point position and get the Jazz into their offense — play point-forward, in other words.

Another is to play the versatile Russian more at shooting guard, where former starter Derek Fisher's offseason departure for the Los Angeles Lakers leaves the Jazz with a void.

"Actually, as strange as it sounds," Johnson said, "we did (those) things last year quite a bit — and we're going to continue to do a lot of those things, and add some stuff."

One option the Jazz may turn to more frequently this season is using Kirilenko at power forward.

The 4 spot is where he thrived before Boozer's 2004 arrival in Utah — he averaged a career-high 16.5 points in the 2003-04 season — and it's where he mostly played en route to winning MVP honors and helping Russia win this summer's EuroBasket championship.