Andrei Kirilenko
Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko is apparently back in his Russian homeland right about now, dealing with an undisclosed family matter, according to sources.
While the team has excused the absence, it will mean that the 6′9″ forward will miss two preseason games against the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Clippers. He is supposed to return by Sunday’s possible machup against he Los Angeles Lakers or Charlotte Bobcats.
Photo by Abel Cheung
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan will have to mix and match his swingman rotation due to an injured-depleted roster.
Utah had six players — Ronnie Brewer, C.J. Miles, Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Morris Almond and Kyle Korver — competing for minutes at shooting guard and small forward last season.
Photo by www.kremlin.ru
It appears unlikely the Jazz can avoid being luxury-tax payers and bring back both Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.
Kirilenko is owed $34.3 million through 2010-11, an especially unappealing contract for teams trying to clear cap space for the summer of 2010.
Photo by Scott Catron
After Utah’s first two losses in the series against the Lakers, Deron Williams told friends he was growing increasingly frustrated with the softness of some of his teammates.
Deron Williams
Utah guard Deron Williams has recently expressed a frustration with the amount of losses the Jazz have been facing thus far in the season. Worse yet, Williams is not sure if things will begin to change, “until we decide that we’ve got to show up every night, can’t take nights off — as a team.”
Photo by Presidential Press and Information Office
Andrei Kirilenko missed a third straight game Sunday due to persistent inflammation and irritation on a bone spot in his right foot. Last month, he sat out another two games are a result of the same injury and while he was hoping to postpone surgery until the offseason, the sixth man out of Russia might no longer be able to wait that long.
NBA Rumors was created by three college grads who played Division III NCAA basketball for Berkeley College. Back then, basketball was our life. A day did not go by without us talking about what was going on in the NBA.
Today, we are all working in our respective industries in Midtown Manhattan. And two years after we graduated, basketball started to fall out of our radar as we started spending more time in the office and less time on the court. Therefore, we created this blog to reunite our passion for the love of NBA and basketball across the world.
We hope that you will enjoy our blog. We are intensively working on our coffee breaks to bring you the best rumors that the NBA has to offer.
Sincerely,
Darjan Milojkovic
Sean Conner
Carlos Vasquez
