Utah Jazz: Okur and Boozer both decide to stay with Jazz

Starting center Mehmet Okur is back for another season and may stay much longer.

Starting power forward Carlos Boozer is back for another season as well, but he might never get a chance to play it in Utah.

Boozer on Tuesday afternoon informed the Jazz he would exercise his right to opt in for the sixth and final year of his current contract, which is valued at $12,657,233.

In doing so, he — like Okur — bypasses the NBA summer free-agency shopping market that opened at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The decision — according to some with knowledge — is at least more palatable to the Jazz than signing Boozer to a long-term deal.

Its fallout, in part, is that Okur — who had an early termination option — decided to return for the 2009-10 season as well, with his salary set at $9 million.

So while suggestions abound Tuesday night from outside the organization that the Jazz may now try to trade Boozer, perhaps before next season gets under way, the possibility remains that Okur will continue extension talks with the team later this offseason.

"He's quite happy both in Salt Lake and with the system and the team, and he never really wanted to leave," said Okur's agent, Marc Fleisher. "So, he didn't opt out and he's happy where he is."

Further cheery news for the Jazz is that — combined with backup shooting guard Kyle Korver's decision Monday to not opt out of the last season of his deal — a potentially crazy summer just got quite calmer.

"What it does is it gives us contractual obligations where we had question marks," Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said Tuesday night. "It gives us certainty."

Until, that is, it gets wacky again next summer.

Fleisher, for instance, flew from Connecticut to Utah on Monday night, and on Tuesday afternoon he discussed the possibility of an extension with O'Connor.

For a time, Fleisher also considered putting his client — a one-time NBA All-Star — on the open market.

But when Boozer opted in, and the amount of money the Jazz had to spend suddenly took a hit, all bets were off.

Now, Okur can either enter the market as an unrestricted free agent in 2010 — when many NBA teams are expected to have more cash and team payroll salary cap space, and perhaps a deal can be had that starts at more than $10 million — or negotiate a long-term extension some time in the months to come. "I think that's something we'll discuss as we go forward," Fleisher said.