Uncertain offseason awaits Jazz

The NBA could spend years saying goodbye to Larry Miller, the man who saved professional basketball in Salt Lake City, who was in his 24th season as Jazz owner at the time of his death on Feb. 20, who fostered stability as everyone around him played musical rosters, who helped shag balls under the hoop during pregame warm-ups, who gave hundreds of college scholarships to children of full-time employees at his 80 or so businesses.

There are a couple of months' worth of riffs on his unbridled emotions alone, the way Miller would publicly air out Karl Malone for wanting to restructure his contract again or Andrei Kirilenko for substandard play, just as Miller was known to get in arguments with opposing players at games. What an original.

But it's time to get impersonal. Miller is, unfortunately, gone. The Jazz blew the end of the regular season and tumbled into the No. 8 spot in the West and the dreaded Lakers matchup. They were down 2-1 after Thursday's home victory and staring at a fast-approaching summer vacation that could include the departure of at least one major free agent and coach Jerry Sloan

These months are the Jazz at the intersection. Not at the historic level of 2003 and the departure of John Stockton to retirement and Karl Malone to free agency, but this offers the possibility of losing their forever owner, their forever coach and two starters in a short span. A franchise raised on stability doesn't do that.

The Greg Miller style is to be more behind the scenes than his father, so there's at least that noticeable change in the ownership. But the oldest of Larry's and Gail's five kids, the appointed successor months before complications from diabetes took Larry, said the basketball approach will remain the same, a telling statement at an important juncture for the franchise.

"I'm completely committed to carrying on those things," Greg Miller said in an interview this week.

The interpretation on several fronts:

• He's hoping Sloan will stay. No surprise. Larry understood Sloan and the coach's famous job insecurity and made it a policy to ideally avoid having Sloan enter the final season of a contract. There would always be an extension before that. And since Sloan is still his usual grumbling great self, and was just elected to the Hall of Fame, the new owner said Jerry should feel just as wanted.

But Sloan for several years has waited until the offseason to decide if he had another season in him, and this time will be no different even though he agreed to an extension in January. As always, it's impossible to detect a leaning, only that he will consider retiring to a farmer's life in downstate Illinois. Maybe making the Hall and the change in ownership will be read as the right time to break. Maybe not. There were years Larry thought Sloan would call it quits and it didn't happen, so good luck at anyone else guessing.

• Kevin O'Connor is highly valued as head of basketball operations. Also no surprise. Without nearly the attention of many of his peers, O'Connor, an understated executive in a small market, is one of the best in the league.