Carlos Boozer said the other day, as far as his opting out goes, he just "wants to be happy."

He also said he "put the ball in [the Jazz's] court" and told them he "wants to be there ... we'll see how they respond." (Read: We'll see how much more coin they're willing to scratch up.)

Whoever said money can't buy happiness never talked to C-Booz. And even if money can't buy happiness, but it can buy the kind of misery you prefer, for Boozer, that's close enough. His current contract situation is all about the kind of happiness, or misery, he can deposit in the bank. It's as simple as this: Give him more of it, and he'll stay. Don't, and he'll threaten to turn a heel, bat an eye and pucker up for another sailor.

Two questions, then.

1. Does Boozer deserve more money?

2. Is anybody out there willing to give it to him?

And another one, the biggest of the bunch.

3. Are the Jazz better off paying and keeping him?

The NBA may be the only job opportunity on the planet where an employee can miss one-third of his workdays over a five-year span and then presume he is due a substantial raise. Since coming to the Jazz, Boozer has missed 134 games.

Think about how that would go over at your job. Think about how that would go over with your co-workers. The first thought may not matter, may not be applicable, but the second one is, and it helps us answer that third question.

Boozer is a 20-and-10 guy

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who has given the Jazz a low-post scoring presence that is central to Jerry Sloan's preferred way of playing lay-up-first offense.

The downside is at the other end of the floor, where Boozer cannot or chooses not to play defense. There have been times when his inability or disinclination to put up resistance is comical.

The laughs get even louder, at least for opposing big men, when Boozer plays alongside Mehmet Okur. Together, they simply can't make enough stops to beat the best teams in the West.

Another problem: Boozer is not physical. On a scale, a spectrum from black-and-blue to pink, with Rick Mahorn at the one end and Snuggles the Bear at the other, Boozer shades toward the pink. He's a soft player on a soft team.

When it comes to injuries, only Boozer can really know when he can play and when he can't, and that's sometimes handy, isn't it? There's been the foot, the hamstring, the knee, each shrouded in a weird sort of suspicion that Boozer was milking it, or dogging it, or babying it, all while teammates were quickly coming back from injuries that could have kept them out longer, too, but didn't.

Bottom line is, the man is hurt and not able/willing to go -- a lot. If the Jazz

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hand Boozer more money, over an extended period, the pattern is bound to continue.

Answering the second question requires speculation. But two potential suitors are Detroit and New Jersey. Some insiders around the Nets have called B.S. on their ability or desire to be involved. Detroit, though, has money to spend. Boozer is an inside scoring threat, something the Pistons need, but he is not a Detroit kind of player. Pistons boss Joe Dumars, a key part of the old Bad Boys teams who likes basketball played all up-in-the-other-guys' face, is unlikely to pay $15 million a pop over the next five years for a player who doesn't play his brand of ball.

Boozer may, in fact, not have any motivated suitors. Memphis? That's nobody's idea of preferred misery. Even if there is a match somewhere out there, the Jazz are in a position to call Boozer's bluff, particularly if they are set on paying Paul Millsap.

The third question is the most compelling because despite the offense Boozer can provide, the toll exacted from his teammates when he's unavailable, as he so often is, is notable. None of them sees Boozer as a selfless guy who puts the good of the team first. He is seen, rather, as ... how best to put it? ... self-interested.

A lot of NBA guys are like that, but the ones at whom throwing a ton of cash is actually worth it, locking the future of the franchise into them, are the ones whose self-interests don't rupture everybody else's.

Boozer's does.

And anyone who says chemistry doesn't matter didn't watch the Jazz with all their parts back in place close out the regular season by seizing up and blowing them in a thousand directions. The Jazz should have traded Boozer back when he had value.

The answers, then, to the three questions are:

No, maybe no, and hell no.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.