A blast from the past blows in tonight, unsure how he'll be greeted in his first Delta Center game since leaving Utah for Sacramento. Greg Ostertag doubts it will be a standing ovation, but he doesn't think it will be anything like the way, say, Shandon Anderson is treated.
The pivot position vacated by Ostertag, meanwhile, is overcast with an equal degree of uncertainty.
Jarron Collins remains sidelined by a sprained knee.
Aleksandar Radojevic continues to start at center for the Jazz but still does not know if his contract will be guaranteed for the rest of the season.
And Mehmet Okur — lured to Utah from Detroit by a six-year, $50 million contract, paving the way for Ostertag's departure — still is trying to fit in with a team less-than-accustomed to a man in the middle with his offensive skills.
"He should get better," coach Jerry Sloan said of Okur, who comes off the bench but typically finishes for the Jazz, "as we get a little bit more familiar with what he can do."
In Ostertag, the Jazz for nine seasons had a 7-foot-2 big guy whose biggest contribution was blocking, altering and occasionally rebounding shots.
In Okur, Utah has someone who can knock shots down.
His own.
"He has the ability to shoot the ball out on the floor," Sloan said. "That's something we've never had in that situation . . . until you go back to Antoine Carr."
Carr's last season with the Jazz: 1997-98.
"I think he (Okur) is learning a little bit more what we're trying to do," Sloan said. "I mean, there's so many things he's just not sure (of) — where he's supposed to go . . . what he's supposed to do. But he can really shoot the ball.
"I don't have a problem with him taking shots," the Jazz coach added. "He's one of our better shooters, and he's very efficient in what he's doing — as long as he can get to the right place."
That's not all.
"He's a good passer," Sloan said of Okur. "But we have to get him comfortable with where he's supposed to be on the floor.
"Trying to play him two positions (center and power forward), moving him around a little bit — that's been frustrating. It's been tough for him," Sloan added. "But we're trying to get him involved in something where he can catch it and pass it. When he does that, he's a very good passer. It's just a matter of recognizing it, and making the extra pass."
Complicating matters, perhaps, is power forward Carlos Boozer's presence.
Boozer is the Jazz's leading scorer, but he and Okur still have not gelled — just one in a myriad of reasons Utah is 11-18, losers of three straight and 13 of its past 16.
"He seems to be a good complement for Carlos, as those two players get to know each other a little better. . . . (But) they still don't react off of each other in certain situations that we run," Sloan said. "That takes a little bit of time, because it's a reaction thing rather than everything being cut-and-dry."
With too many scoring-minded inside players, and Collins out too, Sloan turned to Radojevic rather than Okur as his starting center in Utah's past five games.
How long that lasts remains to be seen.
Things could change when Collins returns, perhaps sometime in January. And the Jazz must still decide, by Jan. 10, if they want to guarantee Radojevic's one-year deal and keep him around.
Then again, the 7-3 Radojevic gives Sloan something the 6-11 Okur and 6-11 Collins — or 7-foot sub Curtis Borchardt, for that matter — do not.
It's length, and lots of it.
"I need size — and he (Radojevic) has had his moments where he's played OK," Sloan said Wednesday. "He's struggled some, but . . . the way we have been, we don't need guys to get out there getting us 20 points at that position right now.
"We need somebody to help try to solidify the middle, and play inside, and give us a little bit of effort in there."
The very sort of presence Ostertag offered when he was at his best — and the very sort that at other times he showed nothing of, something that often drove Sloan batty.
To this day, Sloan and Ostertag remain close, but Ostertag seems to know he didn't always give all his coach wanted.
"On the court, there were times when we didn't see eye-to-eye," he said in Thursday's Sacramento Bee. "And I think he'd tell you straight up he was a little harder on me than anybody else.
"But when we had a problem, the next day we'd usually talk and get it over with," Ostertag added. "I'd say my sorrys and he'd say his, and that would be it."
Usually.
"If he held out, then I held out," Ostertag told the Bee. "We are both two pretty stubborn people."
In Sacramento, Ostertag still is trying to win Kings coach Rick Adelman's good graces.
With his training camp spoiled by a broken hand, Ostertag is averaging only 10.4 minutes per game for Sacramento — well down from his 27.6 in Utah last season.
He has been a Did Not Play-Coach's Decision four times this season, including Sacramento's last game.
Still, Adelman is keeping the faith.
"I just have to find more of a way to get him on the floor," the Kings coach recently told the Associated Press. "He's guarded a lot of people in this league you wouldn't have expected. Greg's smart. They will make some outside shots on him, but will have a hard time going to the basket."
Shot-altering — not point producing, and certainly not soothsaying over what sort of reception he'll receive — is, after all, what Ostertag does best.
"I'm not out there to score or get a lot of assists. They're paying me to block shots," Ostertag told AP this month. "I think I can help (the Kings) because they haven't had a shot blocker in some time.
"So if those guys know they have a guy back there that can block or change shots," he added, "they will probably be a little more confident."
Of that, Ostertag is sure.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com