Utah Jazz's questions to be answered

Looking at their roster as they open up training camp Friday, it almost appears as if nothing much happened over the summer for the Utah Jazz.

All the former All-Stars — Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko — are back with the team. So, too, is their biggest star — Deron Williams.

The whole coaching staff — Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan, et al — is geared up for another go. The entire starting lineup remains intact. The majority of the team's key reserves returned. In all, 12 guys from the 2008-09 squad are still hanging around a year later.

And aside from a rookie draftee — backup point guard Eric Maynor — the team hasn't signed any new faces to guaranteed contracts for the 2009-10 season, either.

If you're just tuning into the Jazz since they were ousted from the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers last spring, don't be fooled. Despite how it looks, this summer was anything but an uneventful offseason for Utah.

Not unlike the well-publicized "Saved by the Bell" reunion attempts, there's been some drama-filled moments in reuniting this cast of characters on the same stage.

Fans, management and teammates can thank the guy who acted like he was applying to become the spokesperson for tourism offices in Chicago and Miami for many of the offseason headlines and story lines.

Before coverage of the upcoming season proceeds — and the Boozer & Media Circus begins — it's worth revisiting what led up to the Jazz putting mostly the same product on the court for another season.

OPTED IN: The early $100,000 question — or $27 million if you combine their salaries — this offseason was whether or not Boozer, Okur and Kyle Korver would exercise the options in their contracts to come back or if they would search for greener pastures elsewhere.

Boozer, turns out, ended up doing both.

After opting into his final year with Utah — and cashing in on another $12.7 million — the power forward openly flirted with the Windy City and South Beach through media outlets while claiming the luxury-tax-burdened Jazz had agreed to trade him away. He even kinda dissed his own teammates while sounding like he was BFFs (best friends forever) with Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade.