Sloan had lost the script with AK and that team. There was a championship caliber roster, being pushed in the wrong directions. The league had changed, the rules had changed, but the coaching while still motivationally effective - was playing by old rules.
Nothing epitomizes this better than a story that Jeff Hornacek told when he was trying to work with Kirilenko as an assistant coach. Hornacek was talking about how he asked AK to guard him, and AK bodied up on him really closely and fouled him. And Hornacek was like, "What are you doing?" And Kirilenko said that was how Coach Sloan wanted them to defend, get up in their grill and put a body on them. Hornacek said, maybe for the rest of the team, but with your length you need to step back because you can still block the shot. And that stepping back would give your more time to stop dribble penetration, which you should focus on because you have long enough arms you can already block their jumper. Hornacek said, that explained to him why AK was blocking so many people from behind because he was guarding them too close to start with - but that was under Sloan's orders. Almost everything Sloan did with that roster has been proven demonstrably wrong.
4. Andrei Kirilenko - perhaps the most misused piece on this team. Kirilenko was probably best utilized when Sloan was forced to play him at defacto Point Guard because of injuries. If AK were entering the league today, we would be looking at his potential as STRETCH FOUR or a POINT-FORWARD. Kirilenko was the best post passer on this roster. He could dump the ball down perfectly to anyone in the paint. Problem is, he wasn't in a position to pass the ball and our best post up player (DWill) was often camped out behind the arc. In the meantime the best roaming defense in the league was not allowed to roam (alla John Stockton) because Kirilenko hadn't earned that yet, or some such nonsense.
All that being said, in a best of the Jazz history matchup.
You take Gobert, I'll take Gobert.
You take Malone, I'll take Malone.
You take Stockton, I'll take Stockton.
You take Maravic. I'll take Maravic.
You take Hayward, and I'll take Kirilenko.
And we will mop the floor with you.
