Kirilenko was out with a sprained knee from Nov. 27-Jan 22, then out from March 24 until season's end with a broken wrist. He never did get back to full speed. There was the timing issue, the strength and conditioning issue, and the team-morale issue to address. Remember the mood? That was when a few internal problems showed up — think Carlos Boozer, Carlos Arroyo and the fiery locker-room rebukes of Raja Bell — which helped keep the Jazz near the bottom of the standings.

"It's good lesson for us, 'cause even in tough times you just get through it together and try to help each other," he said. "What I like, nobody is trying to put a lot of pressure on each other, like, 'It's your fault; it's your fault.' No, it's our fault. We play better this season. We want to win."

There are reasons to believe the Jazz will indeed be better, aside from the usual preseason optimism. If he remains healthy, the Jazz will have their best player back. Likewise, they added off-guard Devin Brown. At point guard, they have No. 3 overall draft pick Deron Williams.

Those prospects have Kirilenko as confident as ever.

"You know, I'm still part of the team, right now, I'm hungry, everyone is hungry, we got some free agents . . . I like all the guys. Everyone looks active, wants to play. It's good."

However, competition in the Western Conference continues to be formidable. The combination of old and new players makes it a tenuous situation at best for the Jazz.

Will it be a fresh, energetic young team or a dysfunctional group of self-promoters?

For his part, Kirilenko has no reservations.

"I want to play. I want to play," he said again, his smile widening. "I'm ready to start."

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com