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Greg Miller, the Jazz owner, started a blog, conveying his displeasure with the Jazz’s play and desire to improve the team. Many analysts have already observed that the Jazz are underachieving despite paying the luxury tax, which is infuriating to both owner and fan alike.

As Greg Miller stated, trades are difficult. But hardly impossible. One of the difficult contracts to trade is Andrei Kirilenko. It’s no secret the Jazz have been trying to trade Kirilenko for years. He’s had several fallouts with Coach Jerry Sloan over coming off the bench, his minutes, and his role with the team. According to several sources, the Jazz are paying Kirilenko close to 16.5 million this year and 18 the next, making him the highest paid player on the Jazz roster.

Yet his fat contract was given to him for a reason. The multi-talented forward promised to be the poster child of the new, modern NBA player; position-less, versatile, with a diverse set of skills. Throughout his career, Kirilenko showed his potential on defense by being both a lockdown and team defender, using his lanky 6′9″ frame and great instincts, while filling the boxscore, nearly leading the league in both steals and blocks.  And yet, Kirilenko had the versatility to move to power forward and put up his best statistical numbers replacing Karl Malone, in the years when Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett ruled the Western Conference at that position.  Moreover, it was Kirilenko who took over point guard when Deron Williams was in foul trouble in recent playoffs battles. Forced to spread the floor and becoming a jump shooter, Kirilenko posted 38% 3-point shooting 2 of the past 3 years, again demonstrating his diversity. Kirilenko was one of the league’s elite defenders with an almost unmatched set of skills.  

How did he end up becoming an underachieving sixth man, wildly overpaid, constantly scapegoated? In my opinion? Several factors.

1. The arrival of Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. Instead of working much of the offense through Kirilenko, the Jazz became increasingly focused on recreating the Stockon-Malone pick-and-roll with Williams and Boozer.  The Jazz began to surround them with shooters to spread the floor. Since Kirilenko wasn’t a shooter at the time, he began to lose his significance to his team. Kirilenko was awarded such a huge contract based on his status as a franchise player – Boozer and Williams permanently changed that.
2. Competition at the position.  Guys like Korver, Matt Harpring, and Paul Millsap started to steal Kirilenko’s minutes. These players started to fill in the roles around Williams and Boozer, as three-point specialists, hard-nosed defenders, scrappy post scorers. They simply made more sense in the offense the Jazz were running. Kirilenko was relegated to standing around the perimeter and allowing Milsap or Boozer get to work in the post, waiting for any kick-out passes. He was forced to adjust his game, and in the meantime, other players began to carve out roles and minutes.
3. Kirilenko’s mentality and personality. Due to the language barrier and Sloan’s style of coaching, Kirilenko never really understood why his role changed. He never had a smooth transition. A year ago, Kirilenko apparently cried, a result of his frustration. Coach Sloan admitted he could have done a better job communicating. Eventually things became better between player and coach, but the team still moved on, centered around Williams and Boozer. Kirilenko lost confidence in his game, because he never really understood what was happening around him; that lack of understanding affected his ability to adjust, which in turn sapped his confidence and transformed him an uncertain, passive player.

Why the Lakers? First of all, the Lakers are one of the few teams that can pay some luxury tax and still rake in a pretty profit. The Lakers were deemed the league’s most valuable franchise and certainly among the most profitable. Moreover, Jerry Buss frequently has reiterated his desire to spend money to win. It just has to be the right type of player. Kirilenko is that type of player, because he’s ideal for the triangle offense; a versatile player for an offense built around interchangeable players. In fact, this was a major reason why Lamar Odom was kept by the Lakers, due to his versatility in the offense, initiating the offense from the perimeter or replacing a post player. However, Kirilenko is more suited to the halfcourt offense than Odom, who is best powering a rebound and leading the break, a fullcourt playmaker. Considering the Lakers have an inconsistent bench, inconsistent defense exposed by the absence of Ron Artest, and lack great playmaking from the “other” guard position, as Fish, Farmar, and Brown are mostly shooters and scorers, Andrei Kirilenko would have a major role in this equal-opportunity offense. Especially because as of late, the Lakers has still shown a tendency to rely too much on Kobe Bryant, who had to average an unhealthy number of minutes, a gaudy PPG, broken bones and strained ligaments, and several game-winners to save the Lakers from embarrassment. 

The Economics: Under the salary cap rules regarding NBA trades, the Lakers and the Jazz could make a trade such as this: Lakers: Jordan Farmar (2m), Sasha Vujacic (5m, 5.5m next), DJ Mbenga (1m), and Adam Morrison (5.3m) Utah: Andrei Kirilenko (16.5m, 17.8m next)

The Lakers declined to extend Farmar and Morrison, making them unrestricted free agents next year – essentially making them expiring contracts. The additional upside for Utah is that Farmar may prove to be a good backup to Deron Williams, and may fit in better in a more conventional guard setting than the Lakers triangle offense. DJ Mbenga and Vujacic are simply contract fillers, and the one downside is that the Jazz eat Vujacic’s contract next year. Financially, the Jazz would save more than 3 mil this year, and more than 12 mil the next year. A caveat: these are numbers for the year; depending on when these players are traded, the actual savings would be prorated. Regardless, the savings are actually double, because the luxury tax penalizes a dollar for dollar tax.

For the Lakers, if Buss is really committed to winning by paying a marginal additional cost (relatively-speaking, of course, it is his millions. But it would be an even bigger waste of money to try to save a few million on a near 100 million investment and fall short of a championship), this would be a sneaky way to solidify a dynasty. Kobe and Pau can play at an elite level until probably their mid to late 30s. Odom and Artest are still relatively young. And Bynum is just beginning to blossom. Kirilenko would elevate this team on both ends of the floor. They lack halfcourt playmaking, which falls squarely on the shoulders of Kobe and Gasol. When Kobe decides to dominate the ball, the Lakers lose all, not just half, of the playmaking because Gasol needs to get the ball to make plays from the post. The team lacks a reliable perimeter playmaker, and Kirilenko could easily fill that spot, considering his height, which allows him to see over defenses and create passing angles into the post, and vision, which is innately remarkable for his size. Moreover, his ballhandling is more than adequate, as shown throughout his career in Utah. On defense, Kirilenko would work perfectly with his help defense and using his length to bother perimeter players. Last season, the Lakers frequently used Trevor Ariza to defend point guards. The Lakers, with Gasol and Bynum, already rank among the top in the NBA in lowest field goal percentage allowed at the rim. The Lakers could have Kirilenko, Kobe, and Artest pressure the perimeter, funnel guards into Pau and Bynum, and have the length to recover, switch, and rotate.

Essentially, Kirilenko would replace Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc, and Scottie Pippen’s roles on the Lakers, players who defined balanced execution in the triangle offense.