Jazz brass debate Millsap match

And that's not to mention interest on the lucrative bonus, which is payable up front but — in terms of salary-cap and luxury-tax implications — spread according to a complicated collectively bargained formula over much if not all of the length of the contract.

Matching and retaining Millsap, then, could conceivably and effectively cost the Jazz more than $15 million next season in salary, tax and incidentals.

The offer sheet is for less than the $10 million-or-more starting salary that Millsap's camp initially had been seeking, but more than the multiyear midlevel exception deal starting at $5,854,000 that for a time it seemed he might have to settle for.

It's also more than the Jazz offered on their own, which is why Millsap's reps heeded the franchise's urging to fish for a deal and bring it back for them to weigh.

"DeAngelo (Simmons) and I have been working really hard, gave Utah a fair shot to get the kid," Vartanian said. "But unfortunately the numbers (the Jazz) were coming up with weren't at the level we were looking for. ... It wasn't anywhere near what was fair for Paul. But Portland came up with an offer that's a great offer."

"It's very acceptable, especially with the signing bonus," added Simmons, whose nephew averaged 13.5 points and 8.6 rebounds for the Jazz in his third NBA season.

"The signing bonus is hard to walk away from."

Whether the Jazz and Boozer soon part ways seems more certain, as ESPN.com has reported that the team informed him "he is no longer in (its) long-term plans," prompting Boozer to urge Utah to trade him.

The Jazz on Friday suggested that a Thursday ESPN.com report claiming Utah, Portland and Chicago were engaged in substantive talks about a possible trade that would send Boozer to the Bulls and bring forward Tyrus Thomas to the Jazz was greatly exaggerated.

But the Web site stuck by its story Friday, reporting that while "sources stressed to ESPN.com on Thursday that no deal was imminent ... two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been detailed talks."

O'Connor, however, did not deny that the Jazz are talking with multiple teams about potential deals for the two-time NBA All-Star.

"There's a lot of conversation going on," the Jazz GM said. "I wouldn't say it's anything that's more than anything else, and nothing's real substantive. Not right now."

According to ESPN.com, unnamed sources said the discussions partly "are the byproduct of a hard push by the Jazz to move Boozer in an attempt to create the financial flexibility needed to comfortably re-sign Millsap."