"For the Jazz, the question ranks right up there with the biggies: "Who are we?" and "Why are we here?" and "Where are we going?" and "Why did Jerry Sloan duck on down a back alley on us in the middle of the season last year?"

It's not altogether unrelated.

What do we do with Paul Millsap?

That's the question of the moment, maybe the question of the season for Kevin O'Connor.

If there is a heart and soul to the Jazz, it's 'Sap. In his five seasons as a pro, the power forward has worked his tail off for the club that took him with the 47th pick in 2006. In three of those years, Millsap played in all 82 regular-season games, and in the other two, he played in 76. He's done pretty much whatever the Jazz have asked.

That's significant for a team that has seen mainstays through much of that same time often get hurt or get butt-hurt over long stretches because they weren't durable, weren't willing to play hurt, or weren't willing to play through hurt feelings. Two of those former pillars are now gone.

Millsap plays on.

Over the past three seasons, he's averaged 13.5, 11.6, and 17.3 points, as well as 8.6, 6.8, and 7.6 rebounds. The last time the Jazz made the postseason, in 2009-10, Millsap averaged 18 points and 8.8 boards in those 10 games, hitting better than 57 percent of his shots."