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The Jazz are finally close to being whole: Carlos Boozer, who's missed the last 44 games after injuring his left knee in November, is expected to make his long-awaited return Monday night. He's technically still considered a game-time decision, but he confirmed in an interview with KFAN 1320 in Salt Lake City that tonight is the night.

"I expect to start," Boozer said. "I think I'm going to be limited for the first couple games just to break back into it and be careful. I'll probably play about 12 to 15 minutes tonight and build up as the season goes along."

Larry H. Miller, the owner of the Utah Jazz, passed away Friday at the age of 64 after a long battle with diabetes. Miller had been confined to a wheelchair for some time, and just a few weeks ago had both legs amputated below the knees.

The Jazz owner is survived by his wife Gail. Miller was a somewhat controversial figure in Utah, as a result of both actions relating to the basketball team and beliefs away from the arena of sports.

Last night, 30 Rock kind of/sort of mocked diabetes. But the truth of the matter is that diabetes is a serious disease, and one that can seriously debilitate a person's life.

Larry Miller, the longtime owner of the Utah Jazz, found that to be a very harsh truth over the past few days, culminating in an amputation of both his legs, six inches below the knees.

A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Utah Jazz on Dec. 20.

Since Jerry Sloan took over the Jazz more than two decades ago, there have been 225 coaching changes in the NBA, including six so far this year. In a business where coaches are often fired after less than two years on the job, he's a rare example of stability that you just don't see anymore, be it in the NBA or any other industry. Meeting with reporters before Friday's game, Sloan reflected on his longevity.

"I've been very fortunate," Sloan said. "Our owners have stayed with us and I think that's one of the things that gives us a fighting chance to start with. As soon as players know that a coach is in trouble, their agents will tell them, and so they don't have to play anymore. And that's when a lot of change is made. Our owners have given us the opportunity to say to our players that I'm going to be here. And it's pretty hard for them to have their agent get me fired."

Has there ever been any doubt who runs the Jazz? Since he's been in control, his teams have been known for playing smart and playing hard -- I don't think it's a coincidence that only two players have been whistled for a technical foul (Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur each have one) this year.

A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Utah Jazz on Dec. 20.

Earlier this week, Carlos Boozer confirmed what most of us assumed all along: he planned on opting out of the final year of his contract this summer in hopes of signing a long-term deal.

It's simple math: a six-year deal is better than a one-year deal, right? Gilbert Arenas made the same announcement last season and created zero outrage. The reaction from Utah's front office and ownership, though, was surprisingly indignant. GM Kevin O'Connor called the revelation "peculiar," and owner Larry Miller went so far as to say, "It's one of the top 10 stupidest things I've heard an NBA player do in 20 years."

Unexpectedly stuck with a public relations nightmare on his hands, Boozer was in full cleanup mode while talking to reporters before Friday's game.

"I called and I talked to everybody in the [front] office and I told them that obviously I made a mistake and I apologize," Boozer said. "For me, I felt like I did the wrong thing by speaking about it, but it's over, it's done with.

"Obviously I let them know that I want to be in a Jazz uniform, they know that -- it's the same thing I told you guys yesterday, the same thing you guys have been hearing all along."

Really, the local backlash over Carlos Boozer's obvious honesty in matters of his early termination option has gotten absurd. On Wednesday, Boozer told ESPN's Chris Sheridan he'd be executing his early termination option this summer to become a free agent. Most of the world responded with a collective "Duh."

Boozer has been counted as an '09 free agent for the past year because there is simply no question that it's the smart move. I mean, will we raise our fists to the sky when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade announce they will be opting out in 2010? Of course not. In a utopia, we would refuse to be insulted by the truth.

Larry Miller's mind is no idyllic entity. The Jazz owner (in the hospital again) basted Boozer on SLC sports talk radio Thursday. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune has the quote.

The Jazz still haven't figured out what they're going to do with Gordan Giricek, who's been sent back to Salt Lake City while the rest of his teammates finish their road trip, but as Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune explains, they really only have four choices: 1) buy out his contract; 2) deactivate him while looking for a trade; 3) make the first trade that comes along; and 4) do nothing and hope he re-emerges from Jerry Sloan's doghouse.

The problem with trading Giricek is that he has an expiring contract and the Jazz have already earmarked that money to go toward an extension for Deron Williams. So might they just buy him out? It's possible, but owner Larry Miller has been traditionally opposed to paying a player to leave -- and given his attitude toward Giricek, he might not be inclined to do him any favors:

Jazz owner Larry Miller had a frank assessment of Giricek during his weekly radio appearance on KFNZ 1320 AM.

"I think the notion is that he's selfish enough to try to get his shot and his points,'' Miller said, "that he'll do what he needs to do to do that in spite of what the coaches tell him to do or ask him to do or whatever you want to call it."

It's bad enough being in a coach's dog house, but you really don't want to cross the guy who signs your checks.

I've never met Larry Miller, but I know that he owns the Utah Jazz, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he would really like the Jazz to win the NBA title. (Okay, it's not a long limb ...)

But while some owners will do just about anything to give their team even the smallest edge over their opponent (see: Cuban, Mark), Miller seems to be shooting his team in the foot. How? By refusing the schedule home games on Sundays, which results in the team playing more back-to-back games earlier in the week than most of their opponents. From Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune (via TrueHoop):

When the NBA starts constructing a schedule for the upcoming season, one of the first steps is to ask each team to submit about 60-70 possible dates for its 41 home games.

That is why the Jazz don't play home games on Sunday.

No dates are submitted in the first place because of owner Larry Miller's belief that his team should not play in Utah on Sunday.
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This season -- if I counted correctly -- the Jazz will end up playing 21 sets of back-to-back games. By comparison, the Lakers will play 15, the Suns will play 16, the Spurs will play 17 and the Nuggets will play 19.

Luhm never explicitly says as much, but the only logical explanation I can think of for Miller's mandate is the fact that he's a Mormon. From a player's standpoint, this has to be awfully frustrating -- I'm not sure there's another team in the league that has its schedule dictated by an owner's religious beliefs. Whether you agree or disagree with Miller's reasoning, there's no way around the fact that his team is at an objective disadvantage because of it.

Forget PER and the plus/minus stat and rebounding rates and all of that other new age gobbly-gook. Jazz owner Larry Miller has his own statistic that he uses to gauge a player's effectiveness: the player's batting average. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune explains :

It's pretty simple: Add up points, rebounds, steals, blocks and assists. Subtract fouls, turnovers and shots taken. Then divide by minutes played. This gives you what Miller calls a player's batting average, to borrow from baseball.

Miller can figure it out approximately in his head after every game. When we talked, he was excited that Andrei Kirilenko's batting average for the Jazz's first preseason game (10 points, eight rebounds, four blocks) was .583. He's now at .490.

A player with a batting average of .300 usually approaches All-Star status, Miller said. A player with a .400 average is definitely an All-Star and a player with a .500 average is a likely MVP candidate. Karl Malone's career average, which Miller cited, was .457.
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Over the years, it regularly spit out John Stockton as the NBA's top point guard, Michael Jordan as the top shooting guard, Larry Bird as the top small forward, Malone as the top power forward and Shaquille O'Neal as the top center, Miller said.

It seems a bit simple, but that last paragraph suggests that it passed the common sense test, at least at the top end. Does it leave anything out? For starters, I'm not sure if free-throw attempts are measured, and that some of the categories probably ought to be weighted a bit differently (is a defensive foul really as bad as a turnover? don't you think a block is more valuable than an assist?).

But still, sports are full of "quick and easy" stats, and while it may not be perfect, I'm all for a relatively painless way to calculate efficiency on the fly. Some players (AK-47 is a perfect example; Tayshaun Prince is another) rarely excel in any one particular category but do a lot of the little things across the board, and this is just another way to recognize exactly who those players are.

It's impossible for me to imagine the Utah Jazz without Jerry Sloan on the sidelines cursing up a storm. I mean, there have been other Jazz coaches in my lifetime ... but not since I was in third grade. He's been running things in Salt Lake City for the past 20 years, easily making him the longest-tenured coach of any of the four major professional sports leagues. (Random trivia interlude: Bobby Cox is next with 18 MLB seasons guiding the Braves; Jeff Fisher is third with 14 NFL season with the Oilers/Titans.)

But still, there comes a time when Sloan will hang up his whistle and pursue other interests, namely, pushing dirt around on a tractor. He recently spoke with Jazz owner Larry Miller about a contract extension, a conversation that left Miller knowing the end might be near. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

"It wouldn't shock me to see him hang 'em up after this year,'' Miller said, "but we've got to wait and see how the year unfolds. More likely, I think it's another year after that, and after that I think it gets really iffy, just based on where he's at in his life. His age, but his interests more than just his age."

Sloan was asked after Monday's pregame shootaround how he would answer the question being posed by Miller about where he saw himself in two years.

"I don't know,'' Sloan said. "I might wake up tomorrow and say, 'This is it.' You never know. I mean, health or any number of things might come about. I tried to explain that in our conversation."

At 65 years old, you never know how long Sloan will have the energy or passion for coaching and when he'll simply want to retire and be a full-time grandfather to his nine grandkids. And besides, the longer Andrei Kirilenko begs to be treated like a little kid, the more I imagine Sloan would rather actually spending time with little kids.