From Deseret News archives:
Jazz get Okur's OK
Utah also agrees on contract with swingman Giricek
But that was not the only development that had Kevin O'Connor grinning Monday.
The Jazz also have come to terms on a multi-year contract with one of their own restricted free agents, swingman Gordan Giricek, who arrived in a February trade with Orlando and finished the 2003-04 season as Utah's starting shooting guard.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Nets restricted free agent power forward Kenyon Martin is expected to visit Utah sometime this week.
The Jazz have more than $26 million under the NBA's team payroll cap to spend this summer, more than enough to sign Okur; Giricek and fellow Jazz restricted free agents Carlos Arroyo, Jarron Collins and Mo Williams; and at least one more big man, perhaps including unrestricted free agent center Greg Ostertag .
The securing of Okur's commitment, though, is a major hurdle overcome for the center-seeking Jazz, who must wait until the league's summer signing period opens eight days from now before they can receive anything in writing from the Detroit Pistons restricted free agent.
"He (Okur) has committed to sign an offer sheet with the Utah Jazz on July 14th," O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations, said Monday night. "We intend to enter into an offer sheet with the player once the moratorium ends."
A negotiating-only period opened last Thursday, one in which oral commitments are permitted.
Detroit will have 15 days beginning on July 14th to match Utah's offer to Okur — believed to be either a five- or six-year deal valued at something well more than $41 million but probably nothing over $48 million.
But because the Pistons have exceeded the NBA's team payroll salary cap, and because Okur played only two seasons in Detroit, they cannot exceed so-called midlevel-exception money in order to match.
The Jazz's offer far exceeds that, so it seems the only way the NBA-champion Pistons could get around it to keep Okur is if they shooed away unrestricted free agent power forward Rasheed Wallace.
That scenario seems highly unlikely, as Wallace was a major cog in Detroit's title run after arriving in a trade this season while Okur — who fell somewhat out of favor with Pistons coach Larry Brown — went from the starting lineup to the bench.
The upshot: Okur can at least begin to shop for a house in Utah.
First, though, there are other priorities.
