<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Okay, this has to be the year, right? The year when all of these guys click and stay healthy and get Jerry Sloan back into the playoffs, it's gotta be now, right? As it stands, this is a fairly well built team that has everyone waiting to see what it can do when healthy for an entire season. Sloan, the incumbent Utah coach, saw his 16-year playoff streak end in 2004 and has been searching for a way to reestablish the kind of consistency he had to achieve that streak. The key to that dream sits in the lap of forward Andrei Kirilenko, the lanky defensive-specialist who has inherited the role of team leader for his ability to stuff every stat category on any given night. For the last few seasons, the Jazz have watched him strive for elite status among NBA forwards, only to fall short and stumble a bit with injuries the last few years. The last two seasons have seen Kirilenko in street clothes for 54 games, and his lofty stats have taken a serious dip despite receiving similar playing time to his peak year in 03-04. </div> <div align="center">Source</div>
