The Utah Jazz, even without coming to terms with restricted free agent Paul Millsap(notes), are going to pay about $73 million in salaries next season. And yet, this hasn't stopped them from working to retain Paul Millsap.

We know why. Millsap's a terrific player, a borderline All-Star last season, and he provided a good slap in the face to those who doubted per-minute statistics last season when his presence in the Jazz lineup (with or without Deron Williams(notes); sometimes with a hobbled Deron Williams) allowed Utah to win with Carlos Boozer(notes) on the bench. He's 24, he can board, and he can score. And as much as the Oklahoma City Thunder might throw at him, Utah seems set to match the terms for the restricted free agent.

But bringing him back at a fair price (say, starting at $9 million a year) knocks the Jazz payroll all the way up to $82 million, and that's just for 12 players. The team is well over the luxury tax, a threshold deceased former owner Larry Miller vowed never to pay last season.

The team's going to pay it, though. For now. And the question isn't, "is this team a winner, for that money?" We know it isn't. We think it has the talent to make it out of the West, if healthy, but it's not a guaranteed winner.

The questions should go along the lines of, who wants Carlos Boozer for a few months? And who'd like to take a chance on Mehmet Okur(notes)? And remember when Andrei Kirilenko(notes) wasn't scared of contact and/or his coach? That could come back any day now. Do you want to trade for him?

Utah figures to be huge dealers as the summer moves along, and into the 2009-10 season. Boozer wasn't exactly made superfluous by Millsap's play -- he does score in a way that Millsap can't match even with Paul's propensity for active finishes off the screen and roll - but he now boasts a massive expiring contract that could be worth a sniff.

A dangerous proposition, for any team. They could only pull in Boozer for a spell, only to see him jet to another team in 2010. Money is the motivating force for Carlos, but that doesn't mean he'll stick with a team that owns his Bird Rights - i.e., the Jazz, or whoever trades for him. Boozer and his family want the right setting. Utah, because it pays him the most money, is currently the right setting. He's a flexible guy.

Okur is different. His contract is smaller, but his game isn't as malleable. He has to be part of a team that plays sound defense, and he's probably best suited to play power forward on a squad with a defensive presence in the middle, making up for all the power forwards that can blow by him. Better than being blown past by a center, in my estimation.

He's not as easy to place. Portland would seem a proper fit, with all that cap space, but they already have an Okur-type (that's not a slam, Blazer fans) in LaMarcus Aldridge(notes). Detroit's used its salary cap space up. Oklahoma City likely isn't into adding a 30-year old. Maybe New Orleans would be willing to clear potential space for the shooter, which could net the Jazz Tyson Chandler(notes). Options, kind of.

And money. Lots of money. You can't help but applaud this team, even if they end up missing the tax, finding some way under it by dumping Boozer or Okur or AK (or any combination of the three) on other teams for a mere trade exception. Don't forget that the team also owns the rights to New York's 2010 first round draft pick, thanks to the fact that Isiah Thomas assumed that the world was to end sometime after November of 2005.

Other teams? Start dialing. You could get a hungry, talented big bent on earning a large payday, for a song.