This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
One day after Memo Okur was traded and four days before the regular-season opener against the Lakers in Los Angeles, Jazz forward Paul Millsap remains day-to-day with a quad injury. Without Okur, the Jazz have one less player in their center-power rotation, making Millsap's health a bigger issue. Before practice on Friday morning, Millsap said, "I'm feeling good right now. We'll go out there and see what happens." Like his coaches and teammates, Millsap expressed regret that the Jazz traded Okur, who has played well in camp after missing most of last season because of a torn Achilles suffered in the 2010 playoffs. "We lost a good person," Millsap said. "We lost a good player. I've been with him for six years. I hate to see him go. ... But we have to try and go on without him." Asked what he will remember most about being teammates with Okur, Millsap smiled and said, "He had his own style, his own way of doing things. He'd come in speaking Turkish so you don't really even know what he said. ... He liked to joke around."Millsap called Okur "one of a kind" and concluded, "His sense of humor. He's very humble. It's tough to lose a guy like that."— Steve Luhm