Before I address the main question of this post, I have to wonder this question?
How has Kirilenko not been fined by the NBA for his comments?
NBA players are not supposed to publicly demand trades as it hurts their trade value for their current teams. His comments certainly have to be construed as damaging to his trade value. Is any other team going to want a player who would rather just forgo his salary and return to his native land to play?
I have to think that it might put a slight damper on trade negotiations.
That brings us to the question at hand, though.
Did the Utah Jazz know that Andrei Kirilenko REALLY wanted a trade out of Utah?
If they did and they knew how adamant that he was about getting some more touches or voicing his frustration and demanding a trade, they should have handled this situation a little better.
Now I realize that Jerry Sloan has already added some things to the offense to get Andrei a little more involved, perhaps sometimes to the detriment of the offensive scheme as a whole, but this has most likely dropped his trade value considerably.
Is Phoenix still interested in that Shawn Marion trade we heard so much about a few weeks ago?
That’s looking mighty tempting right about now.
Couldn’t they have kept Andrei quieter a little longer while they tried to trade him?
Certainly his value was high after coming off the MVP of the European Championships, even though he had a relatively poor season as an NBA player. The Utah Jazz could have gotten a very decent deal had he kept his mouth shut.
Hopefully Kevin O’Connor can still do some magic because there are probably only a handful of teams now who would want him donning their jersey.
I’m personally hoping that Phoenix is still one of them.
