At one end of the Boise State court, long before the team bus arrived, Kirilenko went to work with Jeff Hornacek. The drill: Make three in a row from the college three-point arc and move on to the next spot. Miss two straight, though, and start all over at the foul line.

Expect it to be a familiar sight this season. Hornacek, whose No. 14 was retired by the Jazz in 2002, has signed on as a part-time coach who will meet up with the team twice a week, working first with Kirilenko before branching out to others.

Hornacek, 44, signed on about three weeks ago. But Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's executive vice president of basketball operations, said his addition to the coaching staff was not a response to Kirilenko voicing his desire to leave Utah.

After retiring in 2000, Hornacek worked with Kirilenko during his rookie season as well as before the playoffs in March. For however much psychologist he also will play, Hornacek said he thought Kirilenko still wanted to be with the Jazz.

"I think he's ready to go,'' Hornacek said. "It happens all the time, guys say stuff, they don't want to be places. Then when you get on the court, it's back to business as usual. I think he's got a good rapport with his teammates. I don't see that being any problem."

Hornacek's first order for business will be restoring Kirilenko's confidence in his jumper.

Although he shot 47.1 percent last season, Kirilenko was just a 21.3 percent shooter from three-point range despite putting a summer's worth of work into his shot.

Part of Hornacek's job will be helping Kirilenko find ways to correct mistakes from game to game. Hornacek, who now lives outside of Phoenix, shot better than 40 percent from three-point range for his 14-year career.

As one example, Hornacek noticed last season that Kirilenko was following the path of his shot with his eyes, rather than locking his focus on the rim. He finally got the message through this week, by staring Kirilenko dead in the eyes on every shot.

Just hitting his jumper consistently would make a world of difference. According to the Web site 82games.com, Kirilenko took jumpers on 50 percent of his shots last season and shot an effective field goal percentage of just 29.9 percent on those.

"I think his teammates will realize that he's come back,'' Hornacek said, "it's a different attitude, we're working all the time with him, they'll have confidence in him and he'll show that he deserves it."

Hornacek said the timing was right for him to start entering coaching. With one child in middle school, one in high school and one in college, Hornacek has the flexibility to meet up with the Jazz at home or on the road all season.

His presence also will give Kirilenko an ally when it comes to dealing with his teammates and the coaching staff. And Hornacek insisted Wednesday that Kirilenko and coach Jerry Sloan would be able to work out their differences.

"Guys have to know that he's going to get after you and he wants you to do well,'' Hornacek said "It's like anything else. Just because a guy gets on you, that doesn't mean that he wants you to go off to the side and hide. He's trying to stoke you to do better and is trying to get the best out of you."

The time Kirilenko spent shooting Wednesday was a rebuttal to comments guard Deron Williams made in a recent radio interview. Williams called out Kirilenko as regularly the first player to leave practice and said he failed to put enough work into his shooting.

"I don't really like the idea of shooting after practice,'' Kirilenko said. "I don't know why, because lots of players on the floor, you can't really concentrate? If it's an issue, I will shoot [after]."

O'Connor, who said Hornacek wouldn't be a "miracle worker," added that Wednesday was a good example of Kirilenko working to get better and the Jazz trying to help him at the same time.

"We appreciate obviously him working, and I think Jeff has had a relationship with him in the past and it seemed to have helped,'' O'Connor said.

rsiler@sltrib.com