Fellow Team USA member Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets went a different route, signing a four-year extension with a fifth-year option.

The decisions by James and Wade will allow both to seek new deals in 2010. By then, both will have played seven years in the league — allowing them to sign their next contract for six years and 30 percent of the cap, as opposed to just 25 percent.

Williams' choices, then, are these:

• Go, if offered, James-Wade (which for Williams would be worth almost $50 million, with a fourth-year option at about $19.725 million);

• Go, if offered, Anthony (for Williams, almost $70 million, with a fifth-year option at about $21.3 million);

• Take the full five years (beginning after the coming season, which already is set at $5.07 million) if for some reason the Jazz refused to offer a player option on the fifth year.

One other possibility for Williams, should negotiations hit an unexpected snag, is to forgo the extension now and seek a front-loaded proposal elsewhere in the open market next summer — though in that instance the Jazz would retain the right to match any offer he might receive from another franchise.

If Williams has given the number-of-years issue excessive thought, he wasn't letting on early last week.

"No, not yet," he said when asked then if he knew what he preferred. "I'm still talking with my agent about it."

Asked again Saturday, Williams said, "I haven't decided yet."

The Jazz, meanwhile, would be all for tying up Williams as long as possible.

"That would be pretty good," O'Connor said when asked about signing him to a max-length deal. "I could sleep at night."

O'Connor, however, doesn't necessarily feel nearly as pressed as Williams to reach an agreement before the Summer Games in August.

"I'd like not to put a time frame on getting his contract done," O'Connor said last Monday. "We would like to be able to have him be able to mentally prepare for the Olympics without worrying about his contract, so we will have a discussion about that. But that doesn't mean that we will get it done. We've both had conversations, and we understand what he wants to do.

"He's expressed an interest in what he wants to get done and when he wants to get it done," the Jazz GM added Friday, "and we've expressed an interest in sitting down and being willing to talk to him about it."

It's possible that Miller's health perhaps could delay matters, as the Jazz owner has been hospitalized with undisclosed complications related to his type-2 diabetes — and Miller surely would want direct input into a matter of such financial magnitude.

Rigby, however, indicated that should not be a concern.

"We've had good meetings with Larry before this health situation even came up," he said of Jazz management, "and we were all of a pretty solid mind of direction and approach that we want to take to this thing, so we're moving forward with it.

"That doesn't change."

That should be fine by Williams, who just wants to put pen to paper when terms are reached.

"It's my first time going through this process," he said, "so I don't know how it works or anything like that. So I just have to sit back and relax."

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Contributing: Scott Taylor in Las Vegas
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com