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Do We Risk Signing A.K.
Posted by: Brian H on November 29th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.CSKA says Ex-Jazz’s Kirilenko could be out until January!
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsjazznotes/53005984-62/kirilenko-cska-nothing-fleisher.html.csp
The team said he was out until Jan. but he says 7-10 days.
Worth the risk, for smaller contract?
I’m not sold, YET.
Replies: 9
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9 Responses
Unless we get Granger for Millsap in some miracle trade….short answer, yes, you absolutely resign AK. There is no better free agent out there at his position who wants to be in Utah and has his defensive skills. He says he wants to stay and will play for less. He’s been humbled by his last contract, he’s giving all his current money to charity now. He knows his place and will come off the bench. We need the defense and vet leadership. You resign. I don’t see anyone better coming our way
We need to move on from AK. Sure, he’s been good on D at times (he’s inconsistent), and he would help with vet-leadership. But what good are those things when they’re sitting behind the bench in a suit? His injury-proneness isn’t getting any better the older he gets. With games stacked together so heavily due to the lockout, we would be lucky to get 30 games out of him. Probably not worth it.
Please, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
His 1:1 defense is terrible. He’s still a great help defender, but his guy often lights up the scoreboard.
For every spectacular play, he makes 1 or 2 completely stupid plays. How many times have we seen AK make an impossible block, pull the ball out of the air & turn it over on his way to the front court (bad pass, dribble off of his foot, etc.)? More than I can count.
I still cringe every time he heaves up a jumper. He makes just enough to encourage him to keep doing it–but it’s painful to watch & generally not productive.
I really doubt he’d be happy as a 15-20 minute reserve, and that’s the only way I’d have any positive feelings about his return.
Let somebody else pay him > $5mm, deal with his inconsistency and inevitable injury–especially with the increase in games per week this year!
I agree with TacoRev…the guys is always an injury waiting to happen. Give the time to the young guys like Hayward, Evans, and Miles.
I’m also not on the Danny Granger bandwagon. Strictly a stat guy, who won’t help you win. Millsap is a better rebounder, and defender. The Jazz need his toughness. We have always been a blue collar team, and Paul enbodies that quality.
Just the fact AK knows the Jazz players and coaches is a huge plus for a team-oriented organization like the Jazz in this shortened and compressed season. Yes, he has his warts, but at least he’d give us SOME defense at SF. Even Granger, a way better offensive player, is very lacking as a defender. We would struggle a lot defensively w/o AK, IMO.
Torn, like AK, but perhaps we play the talent we have. Play the youngsters. AK has his plus and minus like many players but the question is who’s time is he taking and does that person have more upside potential than he does?
the other part of the concern is injury, injury, injury… Miller even questioned if AK should be on the floor when he said he was injured. Thats scary! Don’t get me wrong though, I like AK and there’s times we all love it when he’s on the court, it’s just are we going to get that enough to make it dependable and a difference for us throughout the whole season and thats a anyones guess. Gambles can go both ways and this one is no different. Could be something that pays big dividends, could be something that was regretable. One thing I could do without is the non physical play that comes at times which I welcome the change with additions like Kanter.
no more than MLE i would consider it.
I’d offer him $5M and see what happens. Still have two roster spots to fill (AK and Watson?)
AK shined again in the European Championships this year. He is one of the best all-round basketball players I have ever seen. He is willing to share the ball (to a fault sometimes) and really enjoys playing defense. I believe he wants to stay in Utah, play a few more years and then ease into a back-office position, scouting European / Easter European players for the Jazz.