SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -The Utah Jazz’s stay in the playoffs has been getting progressively shorter.
Utah’s season is over after a lopsided series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, leaving the Jazz with a very uncertain future as they consider how to improve and who they will have to do it.
“I don’t know if we can keep everybody, but hopefully we can keep most of the team intact,” point guard Deron Williams said Tuesday as the Jazz cleaned out their lockers.
The season ended Monday night with a 107-96 loss to the Lakers in Game 5 of the opening-round series. It may well have been the last game as a member of the Jazz for several of the players whose contracts are either up or could be up if they decide to opt out and become free agents.
$27 million next season.
All three said Tuesday that they would like to return to the Jazz, but would have to evaluate their options between now and the June 30 deadline.
“I do want to stay here,” Boozer said. “I think we have a lot of great pieces in place and a very talented team.”
A year after bringing back 13 players, the Jazz could lose up to nine as free agents this summer.
With virtually no turnover last summer, expectations were high for the Jazz to make a run for the Western Conference title. Instead, the Jazz made more of a limp to the postseason.
Injuries vexed the Jazz all season from the start – when Williams missed the first few weeks with a badly sprained ankle – to Okur’s strained hamstring, which kept him out of the first three games of the playoffs. Utah players missed 148 games in all during the regular season because of injuries, 106 more than the total from 2007-08.
Boozer missed 44 games because of a knee injury that required surgery, taking away Utah’s top scorer and rebounding threat for three months.
“We just never really got into a good rhythm – never reached our potential,” Williams said. “So it was kind of frustrating.”
on their own when they were healthy, losing home games in April to lottery-bound Minnesota and Golden State.
A victory in either one of those games would have given the Jazz a higher seed in the Western Conference and a first-round playoff date with somebody other than top-seeded Lakers.
Jerry Sloan, who just completed his 20th season coaching the Jazz, said even with three straight postseason appearances, Utah still has a roster full of young players whom – he hopes – have learned from the playoff frustrations.
Sloan said he’d like to see as many players back as possible because continuity is a big part of improving. He said Boozer, who fell out of favor with many fans when he said in December that he would definitely opt out of his contract and look for a raise this summer, can still consistently score 20 points and pull down 10 rebounds a night – when he’s healthy.
“We want to see the players here that can help us win. Boozer can help us win,” Sloan said. “You can’t get enough good players.”
General manager Kevin O’Connor said Boozer, Okur and Korver need to decide what they want to do about next season before the Jazz will have a better idea of who will be back.
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If all three decide to return, the Jazz could be pushing the luxury tax threshold – something late owner Larry Miller vowed not to exceed. Miller died in February from complications due to diabetes and son Greg, who took over the family business last summer, has also said he wants the team to stay under whatever cap the league decides on in July.
But Utah also wants to re-sign third-year forward Paul Millsap, who can be a restricted free agent this summer. The Jazz will have the right to match any offers that come to Millsap, who had double-doubles in 19 straight games while filling in for Boozer this winter.
The Jazz have had roughly the same key players over the last three years and made the playoffs each time, but have been knocked out one round earlier all three seasons. It started with a trip to the Western Conference finals and a loss to San Antonio in 2007, followed by a second-round loss to the Lakers in six games last year.
This year, the Jazz were bounced by the Lakers 4-1 in the opening round.
Losing Okur definitely hurt the Jazz, as did drawing Los Angeles in the first round. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers built big leads in all five games and Utah only rallied back once, winning Game 3 on Williams’ jumper with 2 seconds left.
“We need some toughness. That’s something that’s definitely lacking,” Williams said. “As Coach says, ‘nastiness.”’
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