A player, who is severely underrated. A player, who wasted his prime at a mediocre team. A player, who was ruined by injuries.
Who am I talking about? I am talking about the AK-47, Andrei Kirilenko.

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Who is he? Andrei Kirilenko is a 6'9", 220 lbs forward, who played for the Utah Jazz, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Brooklyn Nets.
He is a 1-time All Star and 3-time All-Defensive Team player.
Additionally, Andrei led the league in blocks per game in the 2004/05 season.

Now, let's talk about his NBA career, in-depth.
This is how his career arch looks like, according to Play Impact Plus Minus (PIPM).

Blue = Offensive PIPM
Red = Defensive PIPM
Green = Overall PIPM

The AK-47's basic and advanced stats, over his whole career, look like the following:

11.8 PPG
5.5 RPG
2.7 APG
1.8 BPG
1.4 SPG
1.9 ToPG
on 57.1% TS / 107 TS+

.151 WS/48 and .095 WS/G

2.6 OBPM
2.3 DBPM
4.9 BPM

3.21 VORP per season

This seems very good, if you ask me. His impact, shown in the form of WS/48 and WS/G are quite impressive. What stands out the most is that his offensive and defensive impact are almost similar.

His whole career stats are nothing compared to Kirilenko's peak stats, though. In the following, I am going to focus on his 3-year peak.
In my opinion, his 3-year peak starts in the 2002/03 season and ends in the 2004/05 season.
Let's go!

Andrei's basic stats, during that stretch, look like the following:

14.5 PPG
6.6 RPG
2.6 APG
2.6 BPG
1.7 SPG
2.2 ToPG
on 58% TS / 112 TS+

This is very good! It looks like the AK-47 is a decent scorer and rebounder, for his size. His defensive basic stats are incredible!

Although his basic stats already look quite good, the advanced stats are even better!

.195 WS/48 and 0.132 WS/G

4.4 Offensive BPM
3.0 Defensive BPM
7.5 BPM

5.1 VORP per season

2.1 OPIPM
1.5 DPIPM
3.6 PIPM

According to PIPM, Andrei Kirilenko's best season was the 2005/06 season.
Due to his WS/48 falling down to .145, his BPM and efficiency dropping, too, I decided not to choose this season as part of his 3-year peak.

During that 3-year stretch, Andrei reached the playoffs once, in 2003, and sadly did not perform up to his standards. I would not label him as a playoff choker, but his play definitely drops, when it matters the most:

0.09 WS/48 and 0.06 WS/G

3.5 OBPM
0.1 DBPM
3.6 BPM

0.2 VORP

If somebody is interested in his basic stats in the 2002/03 playoffs, here they are:

11.6 PPG
4.8 RPG
1.4 APG
2.0 BPG
0.6 SPG
1.2 ToPG

on 54.1% TS

Some other facts about the AK-47:

- In the 2007/08 season, he had a 37.9 3P%.

- He is the first player, since 1973, to record a game with at least a count of 6 in every major basic stat category against the Lakers. In that game he recorded a
14, 8, 9, 7, 6 stat line.

In summary, Andrei Kirilenko is an all time good defender with a very good impact, during the regular season, who sadly underperformed in the playoffs.
His career would have been way better, if it was not for injuries!
The greatest Russian basketball player ever: Andrei Kirilenko

This concludes the end of the thread. I hope you enjoyed it. If this was the case, I would be very glad if you either retweeted the thread or followed me :)

Have a nice day!