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Jazz look to get A.K. involved

I want to absolutely hurl when I read that the Jazz coaching staff said

"one of our goals is to have each of our players proficient at a position other than their primary one" (Phil Johnson)

What a bunch of crap. Do you know how many games we lost last year because we were trying to play point guards and small forwards and 2 gaurd?
Now they want to play an all star power forward at center, and an all star center at small forward. They are even talking about playing one of the best up and comming point guards in the league at the 2 guard at times????

Dump Linx!! Give the minutes to Milsap, develope one of your two's and get on with the game. AK is finished, there is no point taking away the strengths of our more important players just to get AK to play. So what if AK returns to all star form just in time to implode the chemistry of the team.

Williams said it. AK got plenty of touches last year, and every time he did 20,000 fans held their breath and waited for the worst. And we saw it often.

how about let AK play C, Okur play SF?

Chico you took the words right out of my mouth.

Why play your core players out of position just so a defensive specialist with psychological problems can become more involved in the offense?

How about having your head examined? AK is the weakest link on the team. He can play center against Golden state and that is it.

How about having him shape up or shipped out? That sounds a bit more rational than playing everyone on the team out of position doesn't it?

Larry will get sick of signing those checks by January. Then AK will be released cause his contract is to be to be moved.

Can you immagine Greg Popovich doing crazy things like playing Tim Duncan at small forward, or Manu Ginobli at power forward just to try to get a defensive specialist like Bruce Bowen more touches in an effort to give him the "spark" to play defense?

AK if you want a "spark" try using your free pass. Just quit trying to use it on your teamates, and us fans cause we are not your type.

Getting good players proficient at other positions create matchup problems of their own for the other team. If they get proficient. That is the key. One reason Okur is so good on offense is he plays away from the big guys that can guard him. I'm not saying play the whole game that way but if AK can play PF for 8 minutes while spelling Boozer and gets 6 points because of matchup problems then great!

Your team just went to the western conference finals and what do you do?

You try to find all kinds of ways to mix up what worked, in an attempt to get a non offensive threat the ball. Funny thing is, if they succeed the ball is surely to be turned over.

My only problem with Andrei is that I believe that he would rather be the best player on a bad team than a solid player on a good or great team.

How about put sloan on SG and AK47 as coach...

Is there a statistic for the number of times AK got the ball into the lane last season, and then was unable to ever get the ball above his shoulders? I've never seen a single player get the ball stripped as consistently as I have with AK. Good luck with those dribble penetrations, 47. Maybe if he didn't have the physique of an 8 year old.

I like what I am hearing. Kirilenko has tremendous talent and he is young. He is not "over the hill". Watching film of those games when he did well will give clues. Yes, a lot is up to Andrei, but it sounds like all the Jazz are willing to work with him. Focusing on opportunities near the basket rather than on the perimeter sounds like the right approach. I don't think you can give up on a guy they have invested so heavily in. With Andrei's A game, the Jazz can beat the Spurs.

It has always seemed that Sloans way of coaching was "work hard in the system and you'll get minutes, pout and you'll sit out." This is the first time that I've seen him coddle a player, and wow, he and the organization is going to the extreme!

It's about time AK47 was involved again. that's why the Jazz lost last year. that and the fact that the NBA will never let the Jazz win a championship due to the small market and low TV ratings.

All of you who say the jazz are better without andrei are crazy. You can't measure how valuable his blocks, steals and hustle plays are to the team. If you get him more involved in the offense then he will be happier and subsequently you will bet more great defense from him. The jazz need andrei to be his best to have a legitimate chance of winning anything. The west is too freaken good for us to compete without him.

Playing people at different positions isn't as difficult as some of you think either. Putting okur at the three just means in the jazz's 1-4 high set okur will start at the wing instead of at the elbow. Chances are teams won't change who defends who, so it really doesn't complicate things too much, it just allows memo to get outside, which he loves, and allows andrei to get a little closer to the rim which could lead to more offensive rebounds.

Get andrei rolling and the jazz have a shot at the title, no andrei= first round loss.

The man can't shoot. Learn to shoot or we give you da boot!

Lenin thinks that Kirilenko should remember good Soviet proverb. "They who vote don't decide election. It is they who count the votes that decide election"

Regardless of what Jerry might say before the season starts, it's going to be really interesting to watch AK and others ride the bench when they don't play the system. Sloan is Sloan, yesterday, today, and forever.

This whole thing about playing good for your home country for Kirilenko reminds me of when Carlos Arroyo really played well for Puerto Rico in the Olympics and then he came back to NBA life and wanted to run the show for the Jazz and then him and Sloan got into scuffles that got him traded away.

The lesson: playing in the euro games is not like playing in the NBA and if you would rather be a star in a sub-par league than to then play your role in the NBA (the best league) then take your ball and your wives stupid gateway shop and head to Russia Kirilenko

KaaaaChinkOOOoooooooo thats teh sound of a basketall hitting the rim and bouncing out

Kirilenko can't shoot, but he sure can steal the ball when he wants to. Has anyone thought of trying to get some weight on him so he doesn't break so easy when he plays against the big guys? He looks like a skeleton out there!