The Jazz are in the playoffs and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by game one. Straight out the gate I will say that I am not an Andrei Kirilenko fan. In my mind he gives the Jazz 10 solid games a year at most. I think that he is an over-rated defender, especially laterally and on the perimeter. He can do some things on defense coming from the weak side, but other than that he is very average. What's more, teams don't have to defend him at the offensive end. The good news for the Jazz is that he went off on both ends of the floor in game one. If the Jazz can get that kind of production from Kirilenko (their fifth offensive option) through the playoffs they are going to be tough to beat. The worst thing about Kirilenko is the money that the Jazz are paying him. It really makes him hard to trade. If he keeps playing like he did in game one though the Jazz are going to win some games and Kirilenko is going to increase his trade value. If nothing else the Jazz really need to consider trading him for cap space so they can re-sign Williams to a long-term max deal.
