Temporary or not, it is a big problem, thanks to a convergence of factors -- all stemming from the Jazz's good intentions of building a team and keeping the core players together in a world of free agency. So who's at fault? With everybody blaming somebody, the only responsible thing for me to do is assign the proper percentages, in chronological order:

? The spending spree of '04: Ultimately, the dilemma is traced back five years, when former Jazz owner Larry Miller handed out roughly $250 million in contracts -- mostly to franchise cornerstone Andrei Kirilenko and free agents Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer.

Absolutely nobody said at the time that Kirilenko would someday be viewed as a $16.4 million (his 2009-10 salary) burden, but now, the Jazz are stuck with that contract. Blame quotient: 8 percent.

? Boozer: The Jazz appear likely to keep Millsap and trade Boozer, which provides only moderate tax relief and will serve as subtraction of talent. I'm still not grasping the concept of Paul Millsap, Mythical Figure, which now spreads from Utah to Oregon.

Boozer's business decision to stay and play one more year for $12.7 million (or be traded) made sense. What was he supposed to do, leave in a selfless act to free money for Millsap? Blame quotient: 6 percent.

? Hedo Turkoglu: This guy could have saved everybody in the Miller empire a lot of money and headaches, just by signing with Portland as a free agent. It seemed like a break for the Jazz when he backed out of an agreement with their Northwest Division rivals and signed with Toronto, but that just made the Blazers desperate to sign somebody.

That's how close the Jazz came to having Millsap go through the market untouched. Blame quotient: 22 percent.

? The Blazers: Nobody knows how pure the Blazers' motives are, whether they structured their offer to Millsap to keep the Jazz from matching it, or just to punish them for doing so.

Maybe they really do envision a role for a Millsap on a team that already features LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward, but Portland needs a point guard or a small forward much more than Millsap. Blame quotient: 34 percent.

? Kevin O'Connor: In a public relations move, Millsap's agents are blaming the Jazz for not being aggressive enough in pursuing their own player, anticipating the fallout either way -- whether Millsap leaves or becomes a monetary millstone in Utah.

Jazz General Manager Kevin O'Connor believed Millsap's people would have rejected any initial offer below the $10 million a year they were seeking. DeAngelo Simmons, his agent and uncle, told The Oregonian he tried to get the Jazz to move from $7 million annually to $8 million late in the process, just before Portland presented the offer sheet. If that's true, O'Connor may have cost his ownership some money.

The Jazz can still keep Millsap at prices that become more reasonable after the coming season, if they absorb the initial hit. Blame quotient: 14 percent.

? Millsap's camp: Regardless of where Millsap ends up, his contract is well deserved and part of a nice family story. His mother, Bettye, once worked three jobs while raising her four boys, with help from her extended family -- including Simmons, her youngest of 10 siblings, who coached the boys while working in a General Motors plant in Louisiana.

Simmons and the other agent, Ara Vartanian, did what they were supposed to do for a restricted free agent: test the market and bring back an offer sheet. Criticizing them for a $32 million deal -- including a scheduled $10.3 payment next week -- seems silly, except for this qualifier: Would playing in Portland really advance Millsap's career?

Even if $7 million a year had remained the Jazz's best offer -- which I doubt -- Millsap could have signed and stayed, for sure, in a place where a starting job will open up in 2010-11, if not sooner. Blame quotient: 16 percent.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com