"(Late owner) Larry (H. Miller) had purposefully said he wouldn't trade either one of them, and wanted them to leave as Jazz," the Jazz GM added. "So that really became an issue, because we were in a situation where we had no replacements."

With a Tuesday deadline looming for decisions by Boozer, Okur and Korver, O'Connor has no idea if he'll have to seek replacements for one, two or perhaps even all three.

Boozer, many suspect, might opt out and test his value in the open market — where perhaps Detroit will make an offer better than the $12.66 million he is due next season.

Okur and the Jazz have been negotiating a contract extension, but his agent threatened that if an agreement can't be reached, he'd likely opt out rather than return at $9 million next season. And it remains to be seen whether Korver will test the market or play out his deal at $5.16 million.

"There's so many options," O'Connor said.

"There's signing your own players. There's signing other people's players. There are sign-and-trades. There's trade exceptions.

There's everything. So ... it will be complicated."

The real work will begin only after Boozer, Okur and Korver make their plans known.

"Are we prepared to work from there?" O'Connor asked. "Absolutely.

"The graphs, the charts, the statistical analysis, the everything you can go through — we've done that, and done it more than once. And it's been a good exercise for us, because we sat down with (family ownership rep) Greg (Miller) and went over everything."

O'Connor called each case an "individual situation," and suggested there is no particular pecking order — though Millsap is expected to get a quick offer, and Okur could be off the market before he even gets a chance to go in it.

"It's gonna be on-the-go," he said.

"I'm prepared," the Jazz GM added. "But the clock hasn't hit midnight."

And, at least for now, there is no rain.

E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com