One of the sickest stat line I've ever seen --- 6x5

The thing about AK is that many times his success in a game is so subtle, that it's difficult to get a feel of how much he offered the Jazz in a win. This mostly occurs because he's a force on the defensive end.

Yes I'll concede that last season AK was injury prone, but so far this season he's held up. Knock on wood, of course. AK might not dominate when it comes to scoring, but he provides such a wall inside, that the Jazz often beat opponents by defending them, rather than just scorching them on offense.

Then there are games where AK will light teams up and pretty much carry Utah to victory. Last night against Detroit, AK probably had his best offensive performance of the season. He scored 24 points; was 3-5 from the three point line; had 11 boards and 7 assists. He did only block 2 shots, but if you watched the game, he clearly altered a lot more than that.

It was mentioned earlier that the Jazz struggle when AK doesn't play. And I think this pretty much seals his worth for the Jazz. With him, they're a possible deep playoff team, but without him, they're a below .500 team.

Will AK be the type of player, like Baron Davis or Marcus Camby, that faces injury every season? Well historically he isn't. I don't expect AK to go through an entire season without missing a game. But I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that AK plays 70+ games a season. If he does, Utah walks away with their division and grabs the 3rd seed. If he doesn't, Utah will struggle to make the playoffs.

So can he? Well this time last year AK was already out with an injury that had kept him sidelined since November of '04. Last season he only played 41 games for the Jazz, and Utah had its worst season in over 20 years.

This season AK has missed 10 games out of Utah's 34 played. He hasn't missed a game since Utah's loss to New York on December 23rd. If he keeps this up, again knocking on wood, he'll play at least 70+ games. Exactly like he has in the past. As DeAleck said, last season was an anomaly in the entire score of things. In AK's rookie season he played 82 games, in his second season 80 games and in his third season 78 games. I see no reason why to suspect that last year was a trend of things to come.

AK is a monster, and this is why Utah is 15-8 (.652) when he plays most the game.

 

I am not looking at any stat sheet. I am talking out of my impression from watching these guys play. Prince's offense look more solid because he doesn't force the issue. He let it come to him. He can afford to do so because he is not relied on to score a lot.

AK is a key scorer for his team. He has to force his offense and he is not able to do well consistently.

 

Utah isn't on TV much... out of curiosity, how many times have you seen AK play?

 

I agree. I guess I misunderstood your reply to my quote.

I said something to the effect that the people who think AK is a franchise player obviously loves him and his Jazz.

Some teams are lucky to have 2 max contract players worth building around. OTOH, if you're a GM that gave into market conditions of one particular year, sometimes you have to deal away the disappointment or come up with some great moves to compliment your mistake.

Most GMs would just give up, try to build around a dissapointing max player, and hope for success (Nets + Keith Van Horn).

We know they're not franchise players. GMs are hoping to make something out of their mistake.

In the Jazz's case, they didn't overpay AK (unable to attract FA), but they have a deeper hole to dig out of in order to compliment him.