Utah Jazz: Millsap garnering a lot of interest from NBA teams

Interest in Jazz restricted free agent Paul Millsap evidently heated up this morning, when the first full day of the NBA's summer free-agency shopping market officially opened.

Millsap's representatives said several teams — more than five — called shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

That group is known to include Oklahoma City, Memphis and the Jazz.

Several others called Wednesday morning, including some that weren't expected to make contact.

"Teams in the running for a championship," DeAngelo Simmons, Millsap's representative and uncle, said today.

"Teams not even on our radar, to be honest," added Ara Vartanian, one of Millsap's representatives.

As of early this afternoon, however, Millsap had received no formal and concrete offers.

"We've gotten a lot more interest from a lot more teams," Vartanian said, "but things are still in the preliminary stages."

The two representatives suggested some teams are being quite creative, including discussions about front-loaded contracts and proposed sign-and-trade possibilities.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported this morning that "there are conflicting reports on how much the Knicks are willing to spend on Lee ... (but) a team source claims the Knicks will offer Lee a four-year deal worth $32 million, which is below his asking price of $10 million per season."

Millsap is seeking as much as, if not more than, Lee hopes to sign for.

And Yahoo.com reported today that Orlando backup center "Marcin Gortat's agent is telling teams he already has a full midlevel offer" — a multi-year deal starting at more than $5 million.

That offer to Gortat, who is among Millsap's big-man competition in the market, is believed to have come from Houston.

The Jazz have the right to match any offer sheet Millsap — their backup power forward, and a second-round draft choice in 2006 — signs with another team.

E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com