The Salt Lake Tribune (Ross Siler) reports: A little past 10 p.m. Monday, Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor can pick up the phone and set in motion the process through which Deron Williams can sign a long-term contract extension to stay in Utah.    From July 1 until Oct. 31, the Jazz have an exclusive window to negotiate an extension to Williams’ rookie contract. Under league rules, Williams could sign for as long as five years and as much as approximately $90 million.
The Deseret News (Tim Buckley) reports: Jazz owner Larry H. Miller already has publicly said he thinks Deron Williams is worth a max-money extension, which — based on Williams’ experience and 25 percent of the projected team salary cap for the 2009-10 season — translates to approximately $90 million in salary over the maximum-allowed five years, beginning with about $15 million in ‘09-10 and peaking at around $21.3 million in the 2013-14 season. Length-of-extension would seem to be the only remaining issue — three, four or the full five years. An actual deal can be agreed to as early as late Monday night, but — according to terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players union — cannot be signed until July 9 at the earliest.

The Salt Lake Tribune (Ross Siler) reports: The official announcement won’t come until Monday, but USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo all but confirmed Friday that the Jazz’s Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams will be making the trip to Beijing as members of the Olympic team.    “They are two highly thought-of candidates to be on the team,” Colangelo said in a phone interview with The Tribune. “We’ve said that all along, but we’re not pre-announcing anything.”    Colangelo confirmed that he would be keeping three point guards on the U.S. roster - expected to be Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Williams - and said he was still in the process of notifying players who were going to be on the 12-man team.

Utah Jazz forward Matt Harpring underwent successful scope surgery Thursday to remove two bone spurs from his right ankle, Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today.
The out-patient procedure was performed by Dr. R. Marvin Royster in Atlanta.
Further information on Harpring’s recovery timeline will be provided once it is available.
In his 10th NBA season and sixth with the Jazz, Harpring appeared in 76 regular season games (all as a reserve) in 2007-08, averaging 8.2 points and 3.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 18.1 minutes per game.  He also saw action in all 12 playoff games for the Jazz, averaging 6.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game. 

The Deseret Morning News (Tim Buckley) reports: Jazz starting center Mehmet Okur won’t play for his native Turkey when its national team plays France, Belgium and Ukraine in September qualifying games for the 2009 FIBA European championships. According to a Web report from the English-language Today’s Zaman Turkish newspaper, Okur was dropped from the team’s provisional roster due to injury. Okur played with an Achilles tendon injury late in the Jazz’s 2008 playoff run, and O’Connor on Wednesday suggested the 2007 NBA All-Star was more injured late in Utah’s second-round series with the Los Angeles Lakers than many people realize.

The Deseret Morning News (Tim Buckley) reports: When the 2008 NBA playoffs ended for the Jazz last month, coach Jerry Sloan as he typically does declined to say for certain that he would return for yet another season. This morning, however, Sloan said he indeed will work for at least another year in Utah. “I’m planning on coming back, and looking forward to it,” Sloan said by telephone during a break in chores on his farm in southern Illinois. In doing so, Sloan will be fulfilling the final season that remains on his current contract with the Jazz.