As this season winds down — especially with a protractor, compass and calculator all now needed to compute the relative value of the Jazz's still mathematically manageable playoff chances — one can't help but think about the next.
Or can they?
Some soon-to-be free agents insist their full attention is on the here-and-now.
They do so even as Utah — with just six games to go in its regular season, including tonight's Delta Center visit from already-out-of-it Houston — stares longingly at both Sacramento and the Los Angeles Lakers, current holders of the NBA Western Conference's final two postseason positions.
"Wanting to play for another team or in another place — I don't think along those lines," big man Jarron Collins said, "especially when we're trying for a playoff spot.
"It is difficult to keep those things out of your mind," Collins added, "but you have to put your focus on the team."
Forward Matt Harpring, the Jazz's highest-profile free agent in the coming summer, claims the same.
"I'm kind of taking the same approach as I have all year: just wait and see," Harpring said. "What happens in the offseason, no one has control over."
Also overwhelmed by a sense that he has no real power over certain actions and attitudes is Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, some of whose clubs in the recent past were adversely affected by players more consumed by their own future than with the team's present concerns.
"I'm sure there's some of it," said Sloan, whose Jazz have been absent from postseason play the past two years and have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since the 1999-2000 season. "But I can't control that. If you allow those things (like pending free agency) to interfere with your ability to play, I can't do anything about it.
"But I know that happens," he added, "because I hear people talking about."
The Jazz's three highest-paid players and point producers — Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur — all remain under contract for multiple additional seasons. Gordan Giricek, Kris Humphries and rookies Deron Williams and C.J. Miles all have contracts for at least next season as well, while guard Devin Brown's two-year deal is only partially guaranteed for next season.
As many as seven players on Utah's current roster, though, may be contractually permitted to leave after this season. Harpring, Collins, Milt Palacio and Greg Ostertag are the most notable Jazz players who will be unrestricted free agents in the coming offseason.
Jazz brass also must decide whether or not to pick up the second-season option on guard Keith McLeod's contract before the end of June, and if rookies Robert Whaley and Andre Owens will be brought back next season.
As much as Sloan has at times been frustrated by that 15-man group, even he can't help but ponder what possibilities its core presents for seasons beyond the current one.
"I think we're on track," the Jazz coach said. "With a couple (added) players . . . if we can find somebody that can makes shots . . . I don't think this team's that far away.
"Now, will they stay together? Will they stay, or will they blow up and say, 'Well, I've got to go play somewhere else?' I've got no control over that."
At this point, little of the Jazz's fate really is within their control.
To make the playoffs, they obviously must tend to business in their remaining games — beyond tonight, Denver visits on Wednesday, followed by a three-game trip to Oklahoma City, Dallas and San Antonio and a season finale at home vs. Golden State.
But even that may not be enough.
The Kings, Lakers and Hornets all must cooperate with a boatload of losses as their seasons wind down as well.
More realistically, the 37-39 Jazz can focus on winding up above .500 (it would require a 5-1 finish) and matching the 42-40 record they had in 2003-04. That season, Utah went down to its second-to-last game — a 104-90 loss at Minnesota — before being officially eliminated from the playoff race.
If even that is truly important to the Jazz, though, Sloan — despite the fact Utah has won five of its last seven games — is having a tough time telling.
"As a group," he said, "it was probably a lot more devastating (to miss the playoffs in 2004). It's not very devastating to this group."
No wonder the temptation to look ahead to next season seems so strong — even as the mathematicians and their toys say this one's still not done.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com