Henderson might still play in Utah

DENVER — The Jazz have deferred until next week a decision on whether to waive or keep veteran forward Alan Henderson, whom they acquired Thursday in an NBA trade-deadline day deal with Philadelphia.

"I don't know what we're gonna do," said Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor, who on Thursday said the team probably would not add Henderson to its roster.

"We're gonna kind of just sit on it a little bit," O'Connor said Friday, "and let him think about it, and let us think about it."

Henderson, who spent the first nine of his 12 NBA seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, reportedly has indicated to Philadelphia media that he is ready and willing to report to Utah.

"I'm just trying to digest it right now," he told the Philadelphia Daily News after the deal went down. "(The Jazz are) definitely having a good season ... I'll talk to my agent, and we'll figure it all out."

The Jazz initially had no plans to keep the 34-year-old, though that could change if starting power forward Carlos Boozer — who played for the first time, Friday at Denver, after missing nearly a month with a hairline fracture in his left fibula bone — has any setbacks in his return from injury.

O'Connor on Friday also cleared up some confusion over second-round draft picks involved in the trade, which included enough cash going from the 76ers (who addressed team payroll luxury tax concerns by taking his $1.18 million salary off the books) to Utah for the Jazz to pay off the remainder of Henderson's contract.

It's quite complicated, but, in sum:

The Sixers obtained the right to swap second-rounders with Utah in next June's NBA Draft, and agreed to decrease the protection they have on a future Philadelphia second-rounder (to be used no sooner than 2008, but by 2010) that the Jazz had previously acquired. But because Philly's current record is worse than Utah, and its pick this year is bound to be higher than the Jazz's, the 76ers probably won't want to swap anyway.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Aldridge, by the way, recently reported that Houston "had an interest" in Henderson before picking up reserve center Jake Tsakalidis from Memphis in last week's deal that sent ex-Jazz forward Scott Padgett from the Rockets to the Grizzlies.

ARRIVE EARLY, STAY LATE: In his first four games with the Jazz, rookie forward Louis Amundson was inactive for three and dressed but did not play in one. In his fifth, Friday at Denver, where the University of Nevada-Las Vegas product from nearby Boulder, Colo., had friends and family on hand, he was inactive again.