Can you picture Michael Redd blocking Kobe Bryant's shot? Neither can I.

Andrei Kirilenko did it twice in overtime Sunday in pivotal Game 4 against the Lakers, and the Jazz held home court in the seven-game series, winning one of the best games of the 2008 playoffs. The Lakers and Jazz now go back to LA with Kobe damaged and limping, and the series even-up at 2-2.

Utah gets mentioned quite a bit by Bucks fans as a possible trade partner for the Bucks this offseason. Bucks fans like most of the Jazz roster, for one; but the main impetus is that forward Kirilenko, the Russian AK47, asked to be traded before the season started, citing concerns about basketball life as a "robot" in Utah coach Jerry Sloan's system. Kirilenko's contract matches Redd's - 3 more years, $51 million.

I also suspect that many fans probably thought the Lakers would jettison the Jazz from the playoffs in five games, and that Utah management might panic in the offseason, a la Dallas owner Mark Cuban. It didn't happen, and that earns the Jazz the Bob Boozer Jinx playoff prop they've been fighting for all season.

I'm with those who like this deal. Kirilenko for Redd, straight up. Done deal. AK47 would look great in a Bucks uniform. It wouldn't give the Bucks a payroll break, but GM John Hammond could (and probably will anyway) seek precious salary flexibility by finding trades for Mo Williams and/or Bobby Simmons and by appealing to Dan Gadzuric's better angels to admit that his contract is ridiculous and cut $12 million out of the remaining $20 million (over three years).

Unfortunately, there's a big roadblock to the Redd-Kirilenko trade:  It takes two NBA teams to make a player trade, and the odds of Utah being willing partners in this deal are about the same as the odds that the Jazz's Mormon owner will convert to Judaism. 

The Jazz have plenty of three-point shooters - Deron Williams, center Mehmet Okur and one of the best, Kyle Korver. Kirilenko, Matt Harpring and Ronnie Brewer are decent shooters too, but play closer to the basket, as does Carlos Boozer (no relation to Bob Boozer). With the exception of Korver, they are all hardnosed defenders, with the spidery-long arms of 6'9" Kirilenko coming in handy, especially when Kobe is playing on one leg.

The challenge in the West over the next few years is how to contend with Kobe, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and the Lakers. The Jazz are contending with the Lakers now, and Boozer, Okur, Kirilenko and Korver are just entering their primes. Harpring is the only Jazz player over 30 getting PT (he's 31). The younger guys, Williams, Brewer and forward Paul Millsap will only get better, and Deron's already All-NBA. Brewer, the starting shooting guard, is only 22.

I don't foresee the Jazz breaking up this team, unless it's to dump an unhappy Kirilenko to create salary cap room to pay the younger players. Point guard Williams, the #3 pick in the Bogut draft, is on the same contract schedule as the Bucks center, and gets very expensive in 2009-10 (figure a minimum 20 percent of Utah's salary cap). No way the Jazz make a trade that gives them no more cap flexibility than they have now, much less trade an active, athletic defender like Kirilenko for Michael Redd, who no one has ever accused of being any of those things.

In fact, I can't see the Jazz having any interest in any Bucks players (Mo started his career in Utah) unless it's Dan Gadzuric. Every team in the NBA could use a marauding 7-foot backup center/luxury tax burden who can run, right? 

GM Hammond's got a tough job.