Last season, it would have been despair. The season before? Hope.

There are a lot of candidates this year, but after a closing six weeks that little resembled the four months that preceded them, the winner inside the locker room and throughout the front office might be: Relief.

The small sample size leaves much of the Jazz's future to the imagination, but April's surge left some oh-thank-heavens lasting impressions. To wit: Deron Williams wasn't a horrible mistake. Carlos Boozer isn't a malingering swindler. And the four anchors of Utah's future - Williams, Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko - might just be a stable, synergistic combination worthy of owner Larry Miller's $200 million-plus investment after all.

Whew.

"I'm sure there's some of that," agreed Boozer, whose yearlong battle with foot and hamstring injuries, not to mention a central role in persistent trade rumors, probably created more angst than the other factors combined. "I don't know if there were any doubts, but we showed we can work together and win. Now that we know that, we'll just keep improving."

Well, they had better. While turnover on the edges of the Jazz's roster, perhaps including the addition of one or two key contributors, is inevitable, the realities of salary-cap limits, middle-round draft picks and trade roadblocks likely mean that the Jazz's best chance for improvement, and eventually postseason contention, comes from within.

"Look at our core 9 all of them are going to be better players next year," Kevin O'Connor said confidently. "Memo can make the same kind of jump that he did from a year ago. Certainly Carlos, hopefully he's going to play more than 30 games. Andrei is committed to the summer more so than at any time 9 getting stronger and working on his shooting. If you look at Deron's last 25 games, he's had a history, [like] at Illinois, of getting better and better. I think he's going to make a quantum leap, defensively and offensively."

If he's right, his task of returning to the postseason and becoming a plausible title pursuer becomes much easier. Good thing, because O'Connor understands the hurdles he faces this summer in acquiring similarly effective players.

"The next step is going to be harder," said O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations. He acknowledged the evident progress made in late March and early April, when the Jazz went 12-7 by playing Williams and four forwards almost exclusively. The Jazz's future appears prosperous. Yet "we still have pieces to add. We're still not good enough."

There are plenty of decisions to be made. How much money, and how many years, to offer free-agent Matt Harpring, a starter at the end of the season. Whether Kirilenko remains a starting guard next season, or whether he moves back to forward. How to beef up the bench, and whether to retain free agents Jarron Collins and Milt Palacio as part of it. Guarantee the second year of Keith McLeod's contract, or make him a free agent, too.

O'Connor said finding more size in the pivot, more shooting on the perimeter and more toughness everywhere is his goal for the offseason.

"Nothing is really guaranteed in this business," sympathized Jerry Sloan, who expressed excitement over getting to coach an improving team next season. "You never know what tomorrow will bring. That's why you work hard and hope things go your way. . . . Sometimes you need a little luck."

Take, as an example, the prospect of adding a reliable long-range shooter, widely considered Utah's No. 1 roster deficiency. The ranks of free agents are thin this summer, with options like Jason Terry, Peja Stojakovic, Fred Jones and Vladimir Radmanovic, each with his own drawbacks, among the few shooters available.

Competition will be intense for each, since several teams, including roughly half of current playoff squads, will be seeking the same skill set. And the Jazz's 2006-07 payroll, which already brushes up against the salary cap with only 10 players and a first-round pick under contract, arms them only with salary-cap exceptions, identical to every other team, to use for bidding.

Trades are an option, right? Perhaps, except that beyond Utah's core, O'Connor has few tradeable assets. Gordan Giricek, fresh off an Achilles' injury that cost him 10 weeks, won't bring much. Kris Humphries, still unable to earn more than curiosity minutes, has even less trade value. Utah's first-round pick, almost certainly No. 14, may be its most valuable chit - but trading it would mean halting the stockpiling of young talent, itself a risky venture.

Utah's mid-draft range occasionally yields a Stojakovic or Steve Nash or Quentin Richardson, but that's hardly a certainty; there are several Bryce Drew, Courtney Alexander and William Avery misfires in there, too. Several draft analysts already forecast O'Connor choosing Duke guard J.J. Redick, whose pro prospects are a matter of debate among scouts.

Which means the Jazz's best hope may, once again, be internal improvement. In Boozer's estimation, that's a pretty solid wager. "We've got a kid who's going to make it big," the forward said of 19-year-old C.J. Miles. "He's got a lot of talent."