The Re-Education of Andrei Kirilenko

By all accounts, Andrei Kirilenko has been ridiculous this summer. I've been a huge AK supporter ever since I saw him throw one of my favorite passes ever in a summer league game. Driving from the right wing, Kirilenko reached the block and threw some kind of two hand, over the head pass to a guy driving the lane behind him. That's a terrible description, but seeing it was awesome. Anyways, AK47 lit up Lithuania in the Eurobasket finals and now I'm pumped for him to do something on the Jazz.

Kirilenko is one of those once-in-a-lifetime players. Not in the Jordan, Bird, Magic way but in more of a Barkley, Manute Bol, Khalid El-Amin kind of way. By my very scientific calculations, he has the longest arms in the history of guys who aren't seven feet tall. Those Inspector Gadgets allow him to block an insane amount of shots and get his hands on a ton of steals. And given space, he can be a reliable scorer. Not to mention that he looks like Ivan Drago.

Kirilenko's the type of player who you don't want to see put on muscle because so much of his effectiveness comes from his arms' ability to be in six places at once. Word was, he was nearly traded to the Suns for Shawn Marion. Sadly, this trade didn't go down as it would have been the most perfect situation in the league for him. Rather than having to play out of position as a power forward, when Kirilenko is given a chance to create, he's deadly. I don't know if it's because of his angular body, but he seems to have a knack for exploiting strange angles to the basket.

Nonetheless, Kirilenko is a Jazzster again this year. That means he'll probably be stuck shooting jumpers on kickouts from Chesthairlos Boozer in a tremendous waste of his unique skill set. But keep your eye on the stat sheet because he's sure to bust out something like an 18/14/6 with 9 blocks and 3 steals.