Photo. Monte IsomIn our line of work, diplomacy is always kind of annoying coming from ballplayers, but we understand it’s necessary in maintaining good relationships within a team: i.e., even if Kobe and Shaq couldn’t stand each other, it didn’t help anyone if they made it known through the media. So when Deron Williams straight threw Andrei Kirilenko under the bus yesterday, it was kind of a shock. In a radio interview, Deron went right at AK, who as you know has made it clear he isn’t trying to play for the Jazz anymore: “You see guys, you see Booz after practice shooting 25-30 minutes, you see Memo shooting for 20 minutes, you see all the rookies, the young guys, you see Hafa in there working, and you see Andrei being the first guy out the door,” Deron said. “He’s coming off a screen on one side, and Matt Harpring’s coming off a screen on one side, who do you think you’re gonna pass to? You think you’re gonna pass to the guy you see working every day in the gym? Or you gonna pass to the guy who never works on his shot but wants to shoot every time?” If that wasn’t clear enough, when Deron was asked if AK’s work ethic was a problem, he answered, “I would say so.” Damn, homie … Although Deron did say the Jazz needed AK on the court (”There’s not too many guys in the NBA that can fill up a stat sheet like he can”) and thinks he’ll eventually come back (”I don’t see anybody walking away from $60 million”), we gotta think this means AK is definitely gone. One of our readers proposed a 3-way trade to get AK out of town: Utah gets Mike Dunleavy and a 1st-round pick, Indiana gets Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, and the Lakers get Jermaine O’Neal and Kirilenko. OK, so the reader’s handle was “lakers4life,” but still … Speaking of people getting thrown under the bus, Doc Rivers dodged the underside of a Greyhound when the Celtics didn’t follow through on its idea to bring in Larry Brown as an assistant. “I was 90 percent sure I was coming,” LB told Sports Illustrated about his decision to eventually stay with the Sixers in his front-office role. Anyone could have seen LB’s plans for a takeover from a mile away, but get this: It was reportedly Doc’s idea to bring Larry into the fold? Ever heard of the term “career suicide”? … After sending Sarunas Jasikevicius on his way via buyout, the Warriors are replacing him with Troy Hudson on a 1-year veteran minimum deal. Good move for T-Hud: he now becomes Baron’s primary backup (unless you want to count Monta Ellis and/or Marco Belinelli as point guards), he’ll get meaningful minutes on a playoff team, and with Golden State’s system, he’ll get his opportunities to fire away … Meanwhile, the Bucks signed Michael Ruffin into their clogged front court, and the Suns apparently really like Brian Skinner. We also read that Phoenix still likes Mike Sweetney, which makes no sense at all to anyone who’s seen Mike play over the past couple of years … AOL Sports did a “Hottest Athlete” poll, and NHRA driver Ashley Force won. Any arguments? … Caught the end of the Texas Tech/Oklahoma State football game yesterday, which was a heartbreaker if you’re a Red Raiders fan. Total shootout from start to finish, and with 20 seconds left, Tech found itself down 49-45 with 4th-and-goal. Redshirt freshman WR Michael Crabtree had been killing OSU all day (14 rec, 235 yds, 3 TDs), but when he got open in the end zone on 4th down, the ball went through his hands and off his shoulder pad. Game over, and the kid was crushed. It was reminiscent of Darius Washington missing those free throws in the C-USA title game a few years ago … We’re out like Doc woulda been …
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:20 am
interesting... says:
Way to help AK’s trade value…GM Deron, I think not
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:57 am
lol... says:
“He’s coming off a screen on one side, and Matt Harpring’s coming off a screen on one side, who do you think you’re gonna pass to? You think you’re gonna pass to the guy you see working every day in the gym? Or you gonna pass to the guy who never works on his shot but wants to shoot every time?”
I am passing to the guy that makes the shot and has the better skills. Just because the dude is practicing more and he might be buddy buddy with him cause he doing the same doesn’t mean that i would pass him the ball every time he comes of a screen. Ever heard or result driven evaluation. I don’t care if you practice 10 hours or 2h the output is important. If you are genius and don’t need to practice at all but still make all the shots i’d still pass you the ball.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:51 am
Ashlov says:
Deron just lowered AK’s trade value a couple of notches. Pat Riley sent him a bouquet of roses and a balloon that says, “LOL”.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 am
sans says:
I think Deron was also noting that AK couldn’t hit at all last season.
If only the Cavs had any players worth trading for.
Regardless the skills Z has, how long until the Cavs buy him out. Even better, would it even be worth buying out Donyell’s contract? It’s not that large, but they could use the space to resign Varejao and Pavlovic.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:59 am
E-ROC says:
Will the Cavs step up and get AK-47?? AK-47 was probably the Jazz’s 5 option, lol. That’s sad. I do think he’ll would walk away from $63 million to play with his native country.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am
.K.i.n.G. says:
straight up cavs and jazz should just trade hughes and kirilenko respectively, hughes would probably perform better under sloan and cavs just need another star-calibur player to play alongside lebron. If cavs need to through in another player, cash, or draft picks so be it but they need to give up hughes asap
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Chekmate says:
Can’t believe that AK47 would walk away from all that money.
If there is a 3-way trade between pacers, lakers, and jazz, id like to see lakers get o’neal & david harrison, pacers get bynum, cook, kirilenko, and jazz would end up with kwame and vlade.
September 23rd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Bron42 says:
AK couldn’t hit the side of a barn last year minus the one playoff game and what deron was saying is…why worry about a guy who only cares about himself and his own shots. If hes not gonna do anything else except worry about his shots, hes not really helpin the team. Hes like that street ball kid, who when he doesn’t get picked he takes his ball everythough the guys who are playin need it. “if i’m not gettin my shot then i’m not doing anything” isn’t really a team player attitude. And those trade ideas are crazy..you really think utah would even WANT kwame or vlade? lol. Theres ndbl teams that would turn those 2 down. I still think the only one that makes sense is AK for jamison. Although, like i said, most teams aren’t gonna trade for a guy with a big contract who will sell the team out once he doesn’t get his way.
September 23rd, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Bron42 says:
how about NJ gets J O’neal, Pacers get AK and the Jazz get Richard Jefferson
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
kyung2 says:
5X5
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Celts Fan says:
those trades are crazy. I don’t know who he should go to, but LA should trade Kobe for AK47 and some crap just to teach him a lesson (I know Kobe has a no trade clause, I just think he’s a jerk and being relegated to Utah would be a fitting way to him to leave LA)
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
tony says:
you people worry too much about trades, AK47 and Deron Williams beef..the real issue here is that this female race car driver is HOT and why haven’t we heard of her before?
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Bron42 says:
I say the lakers just suck it up and trade kobe for Vc, nenad and a pic.
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 pm
triple threat says:
This is for the person who made the second comment. I would not want to pass the ball to a guys who doesn’t practice his jump shot. AK47 does everything else but make shots. I use to like AK47, but after he started to bitch about Jerry Sloan not given him much touches is bullshit. Does AK47 actully think he can carry a scoring load like Carlos Boozer lol. What a joke. I wish AK47 would just stick to his game and be the player who is more valuable without the ball, isn’t that the reason why Utah signed him to a phat contract, not to score, but to do everything else. If you ask me, that’s a nice living. Ok AK here is your contract, you don’t have to score, but we will pay you like you drop 20ppg. The guy is on a contender. I don’t like Utah Jazz as a team, but see them going deep into the playoffs, reminds me of Mailman and Short-shorts playing against MJ and co. in the finals.
September 23rd, 2007 at 8:06 pm
DOC says:
Jazz not gonna be shit this year anyway. Boozer is due for a broken leg or somthing
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 pm
S-SiN says:
AK’s fresh of an mvp perfomance in the euros, which ya’ll for some reason covered with an overall of like 2 sentances, which surprised me like hell( and i’ve been a daily reader since the early hoopstv.com days). u basicaly have to understand where a dude’s coming from literaly! AK’s in the “nu ih vseh na hui!” mode, that if you know anything russian or about russia. his STATUS in his home country IS rediculous, he GETS TO chop it up with folks at the HIGHEST LEVEL. People who, everything else let, sell most of the natural gas to pretty much everyone who cooks in europe (not to mention the oil and all the other factors they use to strangle the surrounding countries’ economies into submission politicaly). AK’s getting medals at home and all! it’s only ironic now us of a only got that annual white house visit. If it was for any other professional in the league refusing to sacrifice for a team i wouldn’t even be writing this! I know i sound crazy but $60mil mil ain’t ish to him at the point where he’s at, a national pride ICON out there and they’re hyping him more than ever now! if you don’t think playing for a national squad pays check with russia’s starting pg jon robert holden. If AK joins CSKA ditching an nba squad that would be huge news there, BUT it wouldn’t SURPRISE ANYBODY. dude is made..
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
S-SiN says:
and while we’re at it. i bet AK can straight up outdrink anyone in the L too.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:55 pm
tony says:
Ashley Force…hot race car driver anyone? no? ok just thought i would throw that out there again.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:09 am
interesting... says:
ha ha - nice work tony, feel free to link some more pictures
September 24th, 2007 at 12:34 am
triple threat says:
AK47 ain’t going to do shit but drink Vodka in Russia and maybe fuck a bitch or two in front of his wife. Carlos and Deron are ready to take it up a notch and show Euros how to ball like men. Fuck AK47, his a goof, and fuck his Euro MVP, I would rather watch d-league lmao. International MVP ain’t worth shit. In the FIBA tournament, a USA player never even won that shit, some long hair bum who might get few NBA double-doubles won the MVP. Euro MVP please, when AK47 wins an NBA MVP, All-Star MVP, or a NBA Final MVP than lets talk. Boozer with one leg would still get more MVP talk than AK47.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:10 am
kyung2 says:
can we not find a picture of deron not in a illini jacket?
September 24th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Amar says:
kyung2 — no we can’t, but dimemag’s windows wallpaper is chris paul pictures, or at least it seems like it . . .
As for the AK situation, it’s more complicated than some people think it is. Karl Malone (who has MVPs and gone to the finals and All-star game MVPs, and so forth) was sick of Sloan as a coach. It’s not just the fringe players (like Amaechi) who hated Sloan and didn’t react well to his coaching style, but guys of Karl’s stature. Many younger players speak a different language than this southern illinois farmer who played ball in the 60’s. Boozer had problems with Sloan. Deron still HAS problems with Sloan. Okur had problems with Sloan. Brewer HAS problems with Sloan. Even during the nba finals days Sloan only knew how to use certain players, and had no clue what to do with players who had different types of talent. You guys realize that Sloan used to START Adam Keefe while Chris Morris road the pine, right? This is the same coach who used to start Milt Palacio or Keith McLeod over Deron Williams, right? The same guy who used to play Karl Malone as a small forward? The guy who only had one way to coach, and didn’t understand how to motivate people witout cursing at them? Look at Greg Ostertag — probably one of the nicest guys who ever played in the NBA. He wasn’t smart, he wasn’t super athletic, he wasn’t even that talented, but he gave his own kidney to his sister. He’s a nice guy. He would have been a much better player if his coach motivated him to be better, instead of dissing him for not being Mark Eaton. (To see how good Ostertag can be, look at the close out game for the Jazz vs. Houston when Ostertag had a better boxscore than Hakeem, when the Jazz went to the NBA Finals) Sloan is an old school, hardcore, ‘my way or the highway’ type of coach — and that really works well for some types of players. (Players who had similar college coaches like Deron and Booz, for instance)
No one is out here saying that AK can be an all-star anywhere but the east, but he is currently in a situation that isn’t the best for him right now. When Andrei was playing power forward (while Memo was the 5, and Boozer was injured for 2 seasons) he was getting 5×5s and had like two 6×6s. When they moved him over to shooting guard (and started harpring at the 3) they missed the playoffs. With Andrei at the 3 they are okay, but the Jazz would be better served with some guy who had a jumpshot. This is something Andrei doesn’t have.
Additionally, something has to be said about losing some information in the translation. I’ve been following this situation long before it was even picked up by realgm.com, Andrei has consistently said he does not want MORE SHOTS. He wants to touch the ball on offense more, instead of being freezed out. Andrei is at his best on offense when he can drive and dish. He is a very creative passer, unfortunately the majority of his passes turn into turn overs because Harpring can’t catch the damn ball. Andrei drove to the hoop and put a bounce pass through Chris Bosh’s legs to Boozer for the jam. He’s done this move to a few guys, and when he makes plays on offense that keeps his head in the game, and makes him a better player on defense.
Look at the GS series vs. the Hou series . . . he was getting the ball, and creating on offense, which fueled him to do more on defense. (Like that stolen inbounds pass with one hand in game 4, or the 7 blocks on Steven Jackson in games 1 and 2)
He’s not a bad player, he is making too much money, and he’s not a great shooter or scorer at the three. He has mad hops and quickness for a 4 though, and he doesn’t deserve more shots than any of the Utah’s big 3 right now. He does deserve to handle the ball a bit more, he played PG against Baron Davis in the 2nd round of the playoffs while the rest of the Jazz pg’s were out of action (deron with foul trouble, dee with neck injury and fish on a plane from NY).
Sloan isn’t a saint, and it’s not like Sloan’s system has done much but consistently give the Jazz low first round draft picks. He has done just enough to achieve regency status in the utah franchise, and they’ve openly said that they will continue with him as coach until he wants to step down.
Even if there was a locker room coup, they would support sloan 100%. (half the team right now has had run-ins with Sloan, but they keep it quiet, Andrei broke the code because he’s really being used poorly. His ability on the court trumps anything a hard working scrub can do. As AI said, “we talkin’ about practice?”) (actually, we’re talking about “after practice” to be exact)