Kirilenko places 3rd in top defender voting

According to results of an NBA-conducted survey of general managers from throughout the league that were released Wednesday, Jazz swingman Andrei Kirilenko finished third behind winner Ben Wallace of Detroit and runner-up Bruce Bowen of San Antonio as the GMs' pick for top defensive player this season.

Kirilenko garnered 37 points, including five first-place votes.

Wallace won the poll with 82 points, including 11 first-place votes, and Bowen finished with 57 points, including six first-place selections.

In other categories, Jazz point guard Deron Williams failed to place among the top three in GM voting for top rookie, and head coach Jerry Sloan did not register a point in voting for best coach.

Wake Forest product Chris Paul of New Orleans/Oklahoma City was the runaway best-rookie winner, scoring 126 points and drawing 24 first-place votes among 26 awarded (not all 30 GMs/teams took part).

Toronto rookie Charlie Villanueva (44 points) was second, and University of Utah product Andrew Bogut of Milwaukee finished third with 27.

Williams wound up fifth with 10 points, four fewer than fourth-place Raymond Felton of Charlotte. The Jazz rookie received no first-place votes.

Avery Johnson of Dallas was the GM's top pick for coach, matching that of the league's formal (and previously announced) media-selected Coach of the Year award. Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni was second and Flip Saunders of Detroit was third, according to the GMs

Other GM survey winners include Phoenix point guard Steve Nash (most valuable player, beating runner-up Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and third-place Chauncey Billups of Detroit); Phoenix's Boris Diaw (most improved, edging New Orleans/Oklahoma City's David West, who received one more first-place vote, by just one point), Memphis' Mike Miller (sixth man, easily beating runner-up Jerry Stackhouse of Dallas) and Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Clippers (executive).

The league's formal media-selected Defensive Player of the Year award, for which Kirilenko is a long-shot candidate, will be announced by the NBA at a future time.

BUSYWORK: So exactly what do general manager-types do during the week after their team has been eliminated from contention for the ongoing NBA playoffs?

Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said he planned to spend much of this late-April week breaking down videotape of both prospects for the NBA Draft, which will be held on June 28, and possible signees in the NBA summer free-agency market, which does not open until July.

ALUMNI UPDATE: According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune earlier this week, former Jazz guard Troy Hudson of the Minnesota Timberwolves "said he has decided against surgery and will spend the offseason (in Minnesota) rehabilitating the injury to see if he can clear up" an ankle problem that sidelined him for most of the recently completed season.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com