Andrei Kirilenko is Timofey Mozgov's biggest fan. (Getty Images)

What do you think of when you hear the name Timofey Mozgov?

Most people think of Blake Griffin's attempted basketball assault on Mozgov on Nov. 20 of 2010. Mozgov was just 13 games into his NBA career; Griffin was just 14 games into his. And yet they both became household names amongst NBA fans that night. Griffin's stardom skyrocketed like Google stock the day it went public. On the flip side of that, "getting Mozgov'd" became one of the more embarrassing things that could happen to a big man.

I guess that's what happens when a player checks you for lice while throwing the ball into the rim.

Since then, Mozgov hasn't been much more than a fond memory of basketball legend. People don't discuss him with any reverence at all because he hasn't done much with his career in limited opportunities. Well, Andrei Kirilenko apparently wants to change that for his fellow countryman.

Via Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post:

All this being said, one NBA veteran is high on Mozzy. Andrei Kirilenko, the Timberwolves forward, was asked about his Russian Olympic teammate this week when the Nuggets visited Minnesota.

“I think he’s one of those unique kind of big men who can do everything on the floor,” Kirilenko said. “He can run the floor, which is great for a big guy. He can shoot the ball. Even though he doesn’t shoot that much, he’s got that touch. He can shoot the 3, he can shoot the elbow jumper, he’s aggressive, he always goes to the board, he can play defensively.”

Andrei is a good friend.

Mozgov certainly can run the floor. That much is true. He's very good at filling the lane and hustling back on defense. He's a decent rebounder with a career rebounding rate of 14.3 percent. He is a guy that will stick his nose in there on defense, even if sometimes it ends up with him getting on the wrong end of a YouTube clip.

However, the shooting part of this quote makes me think Kirilenko has him confused with Alexey Shved or Vitaly Fridzon. Mozgov, for all of his alleged 3-point shooting prowess, has never attempted a 3-point shot in the NBA. According to Draft Express, he never attempted one in European play. He didn't attempt one in the 2012 London Olympics when the Russian team won the bronze medal.

As for other jump-shooting exploits, Mozgov has attempted 50 shots from 15 feet or farther in his career. He's made just 18 of those jumpers for a career clip of 36 percent. While that isn't an awful percentage by any means, it's certainly not something that invites confidence in a shooting big man. 

There are two possible explanations for this:

1) Timofey Mozgov has been holding out on us, waiting to unveil a torrid barrage of rainmakers from the outside that leaves the NBA and its opposing big men in an uneasy state of timid feet that allows the Russian center to attack off the dribble and turning "getting Mozgov'd" into the complete opposite of what it means now.

2) Andrei Kirilenko is a really good friend.