AK’s Contract Seemed Right At The Time

Posted by James Seaman on May 13, 2009

Whitaker Chambers once observed that “our beginnings never know our ends.” Perhaps the Utah Jazz should have heeded this warning as they prepared to offer Andrei Kirilenko a six-year, $86 million contract on the eve of the 2004-05 NBA season. Kirilenko currently makes more money than any player on the team, despite having been relegated to a reserve role. His salary hangs like an albatross around the front office’s neck as the powers that be consider the Jazz’s financial future. Yet at the time, Kirilenko represented the face of the franchise, coming off his first (and only) All-Star appearance, leading the Jazz to an unlikely 42 wins in their first post Stockton-Malone season. When the Jazz gave AK-47 his max deal, the gifted Russian seemed deserving of every penny.

The path to Kirilenko’s now disastrous contract began when John Stockton and Karl Malone left the Jazz—Stockton for retirement in Spokane and Malone for one last title shot in Los Angeles. Utah tried hard to replace the two greatest Jazzmen of all time with talented players from around the league, tendering offers to Jason Terry and Corey Maggette. But try as they might, the Jazz couldn’t net a big fish, so they opened the 2003-04 campaign led by Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, Jaron Collins, and Raja Bell. Some prognosticators predicted the Jazz would challenge the Philadelphia team of 1972-73 for the worst record in NBA history. To make matters worse, an injured Harpring (Utah’s second leading scorer the previous season) played just 31 games in 2003-04. It seems remarkable that the Jazz managed to finish above .500, missing the playoffs by just one game.

Kirilenko led the way to Utah’s surprisingly respectable finish. AK-47 scored 16.5 points a night, hauling in 8 boards while also collecting 3 steals and 2 blocks, on average. He established himself as one of the league’s premier defenders, drawing the assignment of checking Orlando’s Tracy McGrady in the final moments of the All-Star game. If the Jazz didn’t have Andrei Kirilenko in 2003-04, they’d have finished so far out of the playoff race that you’d need a Google search just to find them. Other teams coveted the athletic forward, so the Jazz needed to lock up their best asset—their franchise player—to a long-term deal.

The Kirilenko extension occurred at the end of a busy offseason when the Jazz also signed Mehmet Okur from Detroit, made multi-year investments in Arroyo and Gordan Giricek, and pulled off a coup with their acquisition of Carlos Boozer from Cleveland. The playoffs seemed like a forgone conclusion as Jazz fans turned their calendars to November, 2004. The only question was whether the Jazz could potentially earn home court advantage in a first round series.

Only the dourest of seers could have foretold the tragic fate that soon befell the Utah Jazz. The deals given to Kirilenko and Boozer seemed to curse the team as neither man could stay healthy—AK missed half the season due to injury while Booz played in just 51 contests. The bad fortune didn’t stop there. Mere months after leading Puerto Rico to an improbable victory over the United States in the Summer Olympics and signing a rich new contract, Carlos Arroyo’s game evaporated, and he was essentially given to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for table scraps. It was as if Arroyo had been an illusion, a mirage in the arid Utah desert, making forlorn Stockton fans see the next potentially great point guard where none existed. While Okur played all 82 games, he had come into camp somewhat out of shape and never really seemed to catch up. After a misleading 6-1 start, the Jazz fell like never before, reaching new and previously unfathomed depths every time the team and its fans thought they’d finally hit rock bottom.

The Jazz finished 26-56, the first losing season of Jerry Sloan’s long Utah tenure. After luck failed to materialize in the lottery, the Jazz struck a deal with Portland, snagging Deron Williams out of the ether and setting the franchise on a new course. Andrei Kirilenko was no longer the team’s cornerstone. After an inconsistent, injury-plagued 2005-06 season, Boozer, Williams, and Okur emerged as stars in 2006-07. Kirilenko—still the team’s highest paid player—was now its fourth best. Along the way, the Russian Olympian had somehow lost his groove, unable to morph his game to fit the team concept that the suddenly loaded Jazz now required from him. As Kirilenko’s production declined, so did his minutes. Paul Millsap—a hungry young player from Louisiana Tech and currently the lowest salaried Jazzman—seemed to do everything Sloan asked of him, contrasting starkly with the lavishly paid Kirilenko. Perhaps the ultimate manifestation of Kirilenko’s fall from grace came after Game One of Utah’s 2007 playoff series with Houston when, after falling to the Rockets, AK wept openly in front of the media. The following offseason brought rumors, speculation, and quotes in the Russian press. But the Jazz had little chance of trading Kirilenko whose contract would scare away any potential takers.

Now the Jazz must make decisions about the respective futures of Boozer, Okur, Millsap, Kyle Korver, and Ronnie Brewer. The weight of Kirilenko’s contract severely strains Utah’s ability to keep all of these horses in the same stable. None of the aforementioned players wore a Jazz uniform five years ago when AK signed his deal, and no one knew the twists and downturns Kirilenko’s career would take. Hindsight may be 20/20, but it can also be painful. As Bob Seger once sang, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”

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J R Stewart on May 13, 2009 said:

Excellent history of the events!

You can blame his max salary on Memphis and his fragile psyche.
Most speculation, at the time, was that he ought to get a nice contract, but not a max deal. Then the Griz caved in to Pau’s demands for a max deal, despite not playing nearly as well as AK, at the time.
I think the Jazz were very worried about his perceptions and reactions, if they did indeed offer a more reasonable contract. The Jazz quickly caved too, and he signed his now millstone max deal.
Pau’s performance has gotten better, AK’s has declined.
Everyone felt that AK would just get better and be a perennial All-Star. No one though he would head down hill.
Next year will be critical for AK. If he can indeed put on a little muscle, and get his head back in the game, he could be worth an extension, at a more appropriate salary. If not, he will have a large expiring contract for 2010, and end up being trade bait or a roster spot and salary relief for 2011.
I can’t see the Jazz going into the luxury tax, even for one year, without a high probability of a championship, which means Boozer will probably be gone. This would mean more minutes at PF, and in general, for AK to resurrect his game.
When AK is good, he’s very, very good, when he’s bad… You know the rest of the rhyme.

Jazzaholic

Joey on May 13, 2009 said:

We DID NOT have to sign AK-47 for as much as we did, when we did! He still had one year left on his previous deal and he would have been a RESTRICTED free agent the following summer. Meaning there was no way we would have lost him to another team. We had all the leverage and yet we still caved and gave him a MAX deal. I LOVE Kevin O’Connor and think he has done a great job overall, but this contract, because of the circumstances, was a big mistake.

JayD on May 13, 2009 said:

JR you are right about one thing and that is we will not be able to keep everyone on this squad . I think that you could be right about Boozer . It is to bad that we have AK’s contract hanging over our heads . It is also to bad that AK hasnt performed as well as expected .
I think that if AK could put on some weight in the off season it might make him alittle better .
Joey I too have been impressed with the job that KOC has done with this team . But it appears that he made a mistake with AK’s salery . But who could blame them for when he was playing so well . How could they have known that he would do a complete flip the next seasons .
Well I am interested in what they will do in the off season . KOC I hope that you can whip some good ole fashioned magic this summer .

deb southam on May 14, 2009 said:

Everyone is entitled to ups and downs. We were spoiled with Karl and John, the virtual iron men of basketball, neither missed very many games over his career. Maybe Karl should take Andrei to the gym in the off season and bulk him up, that way no one can brush him off. Everybody forgest how much he has contributed in the way of steals and D. We missed him when he was out. Look at the whole picture folks, not just the $$$, although that is important. Any body remember the complaints about Mark Eaton? Just a shot blocker and no offense? At least Andrei gives offense as well as shot blocking, the game was different when he was not in it. I agree that he needs to get his head back in it and play the system better, but I am way more upset at Boozer for his attitude about being traded,etc. when he was injured, yet everyone is making excuses for his season. Oh well, just my opinion.

Adam Mason on May 14, 2009 said:

First thing that needs to be mentioned. Kirilenko was a 4 in the amazing 03-04 season. We had no power forward except for him. AK has been playing the 3 ever since Carlos Boozer came in. He did so well at power forward back then because he was quicker than most of the the 4’s. Also the 4’s come down on the block in the offense(well for the most part) and AK would be there guarding them. AK was free to leave his man down on the block and go get blocks protecting the hoop. That’s why you saw him getting almost 2-3 blocks per game. He does not have that freedom anymore. He’s busy guarding 3’s, people like LBJ, T-Mac, Danny Granger, and he even guards Kobe from time-to-time all who can shoot 3’s…he does not have the freedom to leave those guys open. His blocks went down because of that and if you watch Andrei his whole game gets going because of his defense and energy. If he gets it going on the defensive side-blocking shots and getting deflections and steals-he plays with a lot more energy on the offensive end as well, making cuts to the basket and getting some offensive rebounds. I really do believe AK would be more valuable to us if he played more at the 4. If Andrei just does some bulking up, at least as much as he can, he could be better used at the 4 occassionally. I don’t know that’s just my observance I could be totally wrong. But AK still has some work to do no question about it.

John M and Kathy M on May 15, 2009 said:

Thanks for the outstanding, albeit discouraging, review. The lesson to be taken from this is that no one can predict the future.

Linda McFarland on May 15, 2009 said:

Another lesson might be “to not put all your eggs in one basket” especially one that fragile.

tman11 on May 19, 2009 said:

wow you guys dont get it really un like boozer and memo and at least he plays and he is consistant i mean boozer can have a 20 20 game and memo can go off for 30 or 40 but they can also have horrible games and off games but with AK you know your at least going to get about the same every game which is a steal or two and a few block shots and 10 to 12 pionts a game he goes out there and does the same thing every night i would much rather pay him money instead of boozer. im glad he wants out cause were paying him 14 million a year for what 40 games? come on thats not earning your pay check you got to do more then that if you want the kind of money at least play more then half the season and show up for the playoffs but thats just me

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