Utah Jazz: Miles warned Millsap about the long wait

Paul Millsap has been warned.

C.J. Miles delivered the counsel, because he knows.

"I told him it was going to be the longest seven days of his life," Miles said of the waiting period for Millsap, who will learn by the end of this week if the Jazz will match the four-year, $32 million offer sheet — replete with $10.3 million payable up front — that he signed Friday with the Portland Trail Blazers.

"He asked about it," added Miles, the Jazz small forward who waited several days last summer before learning that Utah had matched the offer sheet he signed then with Oklahoma City. "I said, 'Man, all you can do is just wait. I mean, try to just find something to do to take your mind off it.' "

Golf. Tennis. Shop 'til you drop.

Or maybe Millsap, the Jazz's backup power forward and a restricted free agent, will ponder further if even wants Utah to match.

He's told teammates he wants to stay, but his representatives suggest otherwise.

"He still has a little despair, still is a little bit disappointed about the situation," said Millsap's uncle and rep, DeAngelo Simmons. "Because (the Jazz) really played hardball, and he wasn't paid attention to.

"To not set a value on their player and let someone else do it," Simmons added, "is questionable."

Despite initially suggesting they would make a contract proposal when the NBA's summer negotiating period opened late last month, the Jazz — perhaps altering course because starting power forward Carlos Boozer decided earlier that same day to opt in for the final year and last $12.65 million on his current contract — instead encouraged Millsap's camp to first seek the best deal they could find in the league's soft free-agency shopping market.

No offers came for more than a week — from Utah, or any other team — and for that Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor makes no apologies.

"I didn't want to bid against ourselves," he said.

The Jazz, according to Millsap's reps, later said no offer would be forthcoming until other similarly skilled free agents — including Shawn Marion, who went from Toronto to Dallas as part of a multi-team sign-and-trade, and Cleveland's Anderson Varejao, who re-signed with the Cavaliers — established their true value.

Millsap's side didn't appreciate the wait.

"Shawn Marion never rebounded for you. Varejao never sprawled on the floor for you. They never took a charge for you," Simmons said. "Why let those guys set the market for you?"