As owner Larry Miller revealed in an interview last week, the Jazz are starting to prepare for the day Sloan steps down. The questions have taken shape as Sloan and the Jazz, together for a 20th season, talk about a contract extension that in the past was a formality.

"I think you've got to think about things like that and we've got to do the planning,'' Miller said. "We've got to do some planning for where we go after Jerry decides to hang 'em up."

Could Sloan's new contract extension mark the beginning of the end for the only coach a generation of Jazz fans has known? Miller, who expects the deal to be finalized in the coming weeks, speculated about how much longer he believes Sloan will stay in the job.

"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."

Sloan, 65, is the longest tenured head coach not just in the NBA, but in America's four major professional sports leagues. The NBA has had 195 coaching changes since Sloan took over on Dec. 9, 1988, 11 alone by the Los Angeles Clippers.

He won his 1,000th game last season - one of only five coaches to reach that milestone - and led the Jazz to a 51-31 record and appearance in the Western Conference finals after missing the playoffs the previous three seasons.

But Miller suggested that Sloan's priorities might have changed after he remarried last year. The Jazz are raising questions about how much time Sloan needs to spend at home as a husband as well as how much time he wants to spend on a tractor at his Illinois farm.

"The dynamics of Jerry's life have changed some,'' Miller said, "and I don't know to what extent that affects him and his career and all the travel that coaching entails."

In the past, the Jazz typically extended Sloan's contract for two additional seasons whenever he was entering the final year of his deal, which he is again this season. That way Sloan's players never saw him as a lame-duck coach.

This time, Miller questioned whether Sloan wanted to commit to another three years. At the same time, he said a one-year extension (or none at all) might be a "tacit announcement that he's going to hang 'em up after this year or next year."

After twice leading the Stockton-to-Malone Jazz to the NBA Finals, Sloan stayed with the team as it bottomed out with a 26-56 record in 2004-05. Reflecting on that season, Miller said he remembered countless questions about whether Sloan would retire.

"I said, 'Anybody that thinks that doesn't have a clue what Jerry Sloan's about,' " Miller said. "There's no way I could see him leaving, if he had a choice, in that kind of circumstance. But I could see him leaving on a high note. I could have seen him retiring this year."

How much does Miller think Sloan wants to stick around to see what this young Jazz team will become, especially after last season's playoff run?

"I think he'd like to enjoy the fruits of that, if he could," Miller said, "but I don't think he'd do it indefinitely if he didn't see growth and improvement."

Both guard Deron Williams and forward Carlos Boozer voiced their support for Sloan on Monday, with Boozer saying, "He's a winner and he's a teacher and when you have a gift like that, sometimes you have to do it to exhaustion.

"He's got a simple formula: Work hard and the rest will take care of itself,'' Boozer added. "That's how he played, that's how he coaches and that's how our team is."

For his part, Sloan said he understood the Jazz's need come up with a succession plan. "It's not fair to put them in a tough situation," he said.

rsiler@sltrib.com

Ronnie Brewer entered Monday's game as the NBA's third-leading scorer in the preseason but came back to earth during the first quarter of the Jazz's 124-101 loss to Phoenix.

Brewer bricked a three-pointer, was blocked by Sean Marks and lost a ball out of bounds.

Brewer did finish strong in the fourth quarter, in which he scored 13 points and attacked for three three-point plays. Guard Deron Williams fell hard courtesy of a D.J. Strawberry flagrant foul in the third quarter and came up flexing his right wrist. He said after the game the wrist was fine.

- Ross Siler

UTAH (101)

Kirilenko 3-8 5-6 11, Boozer 5-7 0-0 10, Okur 4-7 3-3 12, Brewer 5-12 5-5 15, Williams 5-10 1-2 11, Millsap 3-10 10-13 16, Hart 1-3 0-0 2, Giricek 2-5 0-0 4, Collins 2-3 0-0 4, Miles 0-4 4-4 4, Almond 1-4 2-2 4, Price 2-9 1-2 6, Fesenko 1-2 0-0 2, Brown 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 34-85 31-37 101.

PHOENIX (124)

Hill 4-9 5-6 14, Marion 6-14 3-3 16, Diaw 2-4 2-2 6, Bell 8-10 3-3 24, Nash 4-6 2-2 12, Barbosa 6-12 4-4 20, Marks 5-10 1-2 11, Banks 3-5 2-2 8, Strawberry 2-6 0-0 5, Tucker 2-3 0-0 5, Frahm 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 43-82 22-24 124.

Utah 21 20 34 26 - 101

Phoenix 28 30 39 27 - 124

Three-Point Goals-Utah 2-10 (Okur 1-3, Price 1-3, Giricek 0-1, Brewer 0-1, Millsap 0-1, Miles 0-1), Phoenix 16-26 (Bell 5-6, Barbosa 4-7, Nash 2-2, Hill 1-1, Tucker 1-1, Frahm 1-2, Marion 1-3, Strawberry 1-3, Diaw 0-1). Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-Utah 57 (Kirilenko 9), Phoenix 41 (Diaw 11). Assists-Utah 16 (Williams 4), Phoenix 28 (Diaw 9). Total Fouls-Utah 24, Phoenix 30. Flagrant foul-Strawberry. A-18,422 (18,422).

This is the third in a three-part series based on The Tribune's Ross Siler's exclusive one-on-one interview with Jazz owner Larry Miller.

* Part 1, Sunday: Miller on Andrei Kirilenko

* Part 2, Monday: Miller on Deron Williams' contract

* Part 3, today: Miller on Jerry Sloan's future

What do you think about Jerry Sloan's tenure with the Jazz? Tell us at sportseditor@sltrib.com