* Part 1, Sunday: Miller on Andrei Kirilenko

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

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

If he was at all chastened by his experience with Andrei Kirilenko and a maximum-value contract, Jazz owner Larry Miller certainly didn't seem it when asked about the particulars of signing Deron Williams to an extension next summer.

Not only would the Jazz be willing to extend Williams a maximum offer of five years and nearly $80 million, but Miller said in an interview the team would be able to do so without exceeding the luxury-tax threshold.

"If he keeps making the kind of progress he's making, I couldn't look him in the eye and tell him it was fair that he wasn't a max player," Miller said. "He's not that good yet, but he's got a long ways down the road to getting there."

The Jazz will have an exclusive window from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2008, during which they could sign Williams to a deal that would keep him in Utah as far into the future as the 2013-14 season.

The question is if they can do it and still come in under the NBA's luxury-tax threshold. The Jazz already have committed more than $44 million to Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Matt Harpring for the 2009-10 season.

That's the first season Williams' extension would kick in, paying him in excess of $13 million a year. The NBA's luxury-tax threshold this season is $67.865 million, and the Jazz have no intention of someday paying the dollar-for-dollar penalty for exceeding it.

Can the Jazz come in under the tax threshold while signing Williams to a mega-money extension and still keeping the core of their Western Conference finals team together? Miller said the answer is yes.

"We'll have to do some engineering, but we've known for over a year that it was coming and we're planning for it," he said. "As far as I'm concerned today, it's not just Deron's next contract. However long he plays in the NBA, I want him in a Jazz uniform.

"So we've done some mixing and matching and looked at where we are, you know, anticipating the next two or three years' draft picks, et cetera. And there's always variables in there because you don't know where you're drafting.

"But, I mean, Deron's so key that we have to figure him into the equation and then build around with what's left. But it'll work. We can make it work and keep Deron in the fold and keep paying our other guys the big money."

Williams made an enormous leap in his second year, averaging 16.2 points and 9.3 assists, and emerged as a star for the Jazz in the run to the conference finals. He played for USA Basketball this summer in what could be a prelude to a spot on the Olympic team.

Miller said the biggest concern with Williams was letting his star status go to his head. The 63-year-old owner also was critical of Williams for his radio comments last month calling out Kirilenko for regularly being the first player out of the gym after practice.

Williams suggested that he might not pass Kirilenko the ball as a result, to which Miller said: "You don't do that. If you've got that on your mind, tell him in the locker room or something. But you can't say that publicly and create a rift there.

"I would hope for a maturity on those kind of leadership things that add value to what he does on the floor as a player," Miller added, "and on that basis he has an opportunity to be good enough to be an all-the-money player by the time his contract comes up."

Williams, 23, would be eligible to sign for 25 percent of the salary cap, with annual raises of 10.5 percent of that amount. The Jazz can offer Williams more money - and sooner - than any other team thanks to the NBA's collective bargaining agreement rules.

Based on Williams' own comments, Miller said he believed Williams would sign an extension with the Jazz "unless he had some burr under his saddle we don't know about, I would expect that he would want to be here and be part of it."

rsiler@sltrib.com

LARRY MILLER, Jazz owner