AK-47

"In point of fact, he's gone 1-11 from beyond the arc since his return, and he's shooting just 29% from downtown on the season."

Last game he got 2-2 from downtown...

His numbers look bad yes, but you didn't mention that he also had an injury in the 1st month. That has hurt his averages, but not by much. I can't remember an early season that Kirilenko didn't struggle. He ends up getting injured some way or another and is trying to find his game. Once he does, he is a good player.

One thing to add, when you look at the stats from last year and player rankings, AK was apart of a lot of those. I saw several times he was ranked in the top 20 by a lot of "experts". This season, you could argue that Kirilenko is only the 2nd or 3rd best player on this team.

He may not be a scorer, but he sure knows how to do the little stuff that makes the biggest differences. He adds to the offense by passing, getting the offensive rebounds, and wearing out the other teams player that is guarding him. When AK is into his game he is practically running circles around the floor.

AK is a force near the paint, recently AK has had to guard players such as kobe, allen, redd, ect. He is playing more 1 on 1 than he usually does. He gets a lot of his stats from roaming around the floor going for the steal or the block in the paint. That is also where he gets his rebounds. His help defense is one of the bests in the league. He is a great help defender, and a good 1 on 1 defender.

I don't have a problem with AK taking a 3 pointer, just as long as he is wide open and is not being guarded. He can make those wide open 3's, but it's not good when he tries to shoot over his guy instead of driving to the basket.

Overall it was a great article, thanks for the read and thanks for adding to the conversation here by posting your thoughts and articles.