MR. OFFENSIVE?

I must admit the AK vs. The Jerry Larry Jazz tug of war has intrigued me on multiple levels:

It is the first time that one of Jerry's elite player's has questioned his on court strategy, at least in a forum outside of the enclave of the locker room or practice facility. AK is treading on sacred Indian burial grounds. Chief No Change For Nobody is not happy. In my experience the battle between entrenched management and a "questioning" employee usually gets resolved in favor of....well, not the employee.

Dovetailing off the first point is that I find it interesting that a question of strategy is not being repudiated with answers as to why said strategy is being employed but rather it is the "questioner's" character and on-court attributes that make up the bulk of the defendant's defense strategy.

I also have gotten quite the enjoyment out of watching "Jazzfanz" reactions. The reaction is now almost universal in the conclusion that all "complaints" are "invalid" and by extension must than be partitioned on the hard drive inside the brain as "whining". No surprise there. It is the easy way. Combine that with the built in belief by almost all fans that professional athletes by their economic conditions have crossed the fiscal "Maginot Line" in that they must now endure any and all transgressions, either real or imagined.

Finally, it is rare for an athlete to have obvious "prima facie" evidence on his side. In his All-Star year, Mr. Kirilenko averaged nearly 12 shots a game. This year he averaged 6 a contest. Now in most parts of the country except the deep south where only high school students would tackled such a complicated math problem and in Illinois where 5th grade math begins the introduction to subtraction, 1st or 2nd grade math points out the obvious. Regardless of the reason, his primary grievance is solid. Unless the official NBA scorer has a one or more amputated fingers and is tallying individual points throughout the course of the game using Chisenbop, one can find it hard to score points without shooting.

The Tsunami from Jerry Larry Jazz, the SLC Drive-By sports media, and the majority of fans for the explanation of 12 to 6 has been a variation of "didn't work on his game this past summer, can't shoot, doesn't work hard, has no offensive skills, etc. A recent smattering:

Sloan:
"He needs to work on his shooting and then his confidence will be there, and when he gets shots, and he can take the same shots he took whenever he was on the All-Star team, and they go in."

Sloan:
"He made three-point shots that year. He was a pretty good three-point shooter. There was no problem. But when you don't make shots, that becomes my fault."

Monson:
He shot the ball, at times, as though he were loading Maytags onto a delivery truck.

Monson:
Kirilenko, then, must rediscover his proper hunger, his shooting touch, build some strength, and add a couple of dependable signature offensive moves around the basket, otherwise the Jazz should unload him.

KOC:
We had a darn good year, and we want Andrei to come back stronger and shoot the ball a little better."

Let us jump in the DeLorean together, hit reverse and go back to the summer of 2006. Let us also suppose that AK dedicated his entire off season to shooting, working on his offense, and pausing and taking notes on his newly acquired Matt Harpring DVD instructional video. Note: I sense the DVD instructional video with a foreword by Jerry Larry Jazz will be a popular add on to the Matt Harpring Sucks basketball camp this summer.

As a result of such diligence AK arrives at camp with the jumper of Downtown Freddie Brown. Now suppose every game unfolded exactly has it had, one would expect according to the Anti-AK entourage an almost parabolic jump in production. I mean, his offense sucked this year.

Let's assume all circumstances, each play of each game were exactly the same and AK shot this year equal to his career highs in 2pt FG%, 3ptFG%, and FT%. What do you suppose, given this year's touches that his new found offensive skill set would produce for a result in PPG?

Remember, as a baseline, he averaged 8.3 ppg.

Guessing yet? 12ppg? 14pppg? More? 16ppg as in his All-Star year?

Remember he will shoot at career highs in all categories....

chirp....chirp.....







Envelope please.







Answer....


9.1ppg

9.1

9.frickin 1


"But when you don't make shots, that becomes my fault." No Mr. Sloan, the plaintiff's charge is not that he didn't make shots, it is that he didn't get shots. If he would have "made shots" as you suggest, he would have boosted his ppg average to 9.1.

"add a couple of dependable signature offensive moves around the basket." Actually Mr. Monson, this season was Mr. Kirilenko's second best 2ptFG% in his career at 52.8%. By the way readers, guess what his 2ptFG% was in All-Star year?

52.7%

Now for those of you not educated in government schools you are probably rightfully saying something to the effect to yourself "but if AK would have taken all those shots as he did in his All-Star season, it would have been a disaster."

Glad you asked. In fact, Jerry said much the same thing.

"He needs to work on his shooting and then his confidence will be there, and when he gets shots, and he can take the same shots he took whenever he was on the All-Star team, and they go in."

Come Sherman, to the Time Machine.

Mr. Offensive played 70 games this year and 78 his All-Star year. I will even be fair and adjust for this number. Now let us assume Mr. Offensive acquired the Zen-like mind of one Derek Fisher in that once a shot left your hand you have no memory of it, therefore you have no idea if you made it or not and it will have zero effect on your next attempt. Unlike AK this year who:

"He needs to work on his shooting and then his confidence will be there, and when he gets shots, and he can take the same shots he took whenever he was on the All-Star team, and they go in."

Assume our Russian friend declared a free-fire zone and launched away as in his All-Star season but yet still shot as he did this year:

Remember, his offense sucks this year. He didn't work on it in the off-season. He reads Russian novels instead of warming up. He plays Pac-Man all night.

If I apply his Michael Ruffin like offense this year to his "touches" his All-Star year, what does Sherman and Peabody get?

Remember he averaged 16.5ppg his All-Star year. His career best.

Remember:

"He needs to work on his shooting and then his confidence will be there, and when he gets shots, and he can take the same shots he took whenever he was on the All-Star team, and they go in."

Remember:

"He made three-point shots that year. He was a pretty good three-point shooter. There was no problem. But when you don't make shots, that becomes my fault."


Remember:

"He made three-point shots that year. He was a pretty good three-point shooter. There was no problem.

Remember:

Monson:
He shot the ball, at times, as though he were loading Maytags onto a delivery truck.

Monson:
Kirilenko, then, must rediscover his proper hunger, his shooting touch, build some strength, and add a couple of dependable signature offensive moves around the basket, otherwise the Jazz should unload him.

KOC:
We had a darn good year, and we want Andrei to come back stronger and shoot the ball a little better."

Remember, he dogged it, didn't play hard.

Remember the question?

What would his stats be with this year's poor offensive shooting if he were given the touches that he had in the All-Star year?

All-Star year: PPG 16.5
This year if given same touches: 15.1 PPG

This would be a good time to note that his PPG the two seasons prior to this were 15.6 and 15.3

Get the big picture yet?

In the words of Opie the Hick Oracle:

" Pa, it ain't chicken poop if you put it on Aunt Bea's apple pie and the pie still tastes like apple pie."