Jazz guard Milt Palacio has surgery planned to repair his damaged left knee, his agent confirmed to the Deseret News Friday.

"The report I received is that they need to do a little cleanup of some loose particles in his knee," agent Andy Miller said. "It's nothing major, but we're better off doing it now."

Palacio, who signed with Utah as a free agent last summer, wound up averaging 6.2 points and 2.7 assists.

Miller said his client wants to re-sign with the Jazz.

"Milt's first hope ? and I made this clear to Utah ? is we can reach an agreement with Utah," the agent said. "He really enjoyed playing for Coach (Jerry) Sloan and wants to maintain that relationship."

Jazz small forward Matt Harpring will be a free agent this summer and the Jazz have made it clear that re-signing him is their top priority.

"Absolutely," Kevin O'Connor said Thursday at the Delta Center. "Matt's our top priority. Period. Let's put it that way, let's not go any further than that.
     
"We would like to have him back."

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Carlos Boozer expects to be back in Utah next season.

"Yeah, unless you guys know something I don't," Boozer said when asked if he expected to play for Utah next season. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Owner Larry Miller said last week that there is "a 99 percent chance" that Boozer would return next season, and Kevin O'Connor, in charge of building the roster, said he expects the power forward to remain in Utah.

When Jerry Sloan was asked if he plans to return, he replied, "I haven't got through the day yet. I'll worry about that tomorrow."

Pressed further about his future, he said, "I plan on being back, but you never know what your health is going to be and things like that."

Utah forward Andrei Kirilenko missed the Jazz's game Monday night against the San Antonio Spurs because of lower back spasms, according to the Associated Press.

The Jazz only had 10 players on their active roster as guard Milt Palacio also didn't play because of left knee inflammation.

Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag, an 11-year NBA veteran, will retire at the end of the season when the Jazz play host to Golden State.
   
In a television interview, Ostertag said, "... It's just time to move on. I've run out of gas."
   
According to Ostertag, he decided to retire when "I woke up one morning on the road and didn't know where I was. I think it was [in] Orlando and I said, 'I don't want to to this any more. ... I want to watch my kids grow up."

The Jazz selected Deron Williams with the third pick of the 2005 Draft and while Chris Paul is on his way to Rookie of the Year honors, Jerry Sloan isn't ready to say that a wrong decision was made.

"Chris Paul is a terrific player. You don't realize what a difficult decision we had to make," Sloan said after Friday's win. "I mean, it was not like we didn't like Chris Paul. But we like Deron, and we had to make a decision on somebody.
     
"We like both of them. And they're both going to be very, very good players in this league. The test of time will be four or five years."

Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor had to put out his best recruitment efforts to keep the Rocky Mountain Revue going.

"There's been some recruiting involved, absolutely," O'Connor said of the time he has spent over the past month collecting enough commitments to keep the Rocky Mountain Revue afloat for another year. "I made sure I kept talking to people, letting them know what we're doing and how much we'd like to have them here."
 
His efforts have convinced five other teams to join the Jazz this summer, essentially the minimum number to justify the effort and expense of putting on the Revue. "We've got six teams, six solid teams, so that will keep us going," O'Connor said. "We would love to have it be a little bigger if we could. But with six, that gives us a workable number."
 
The Mavericks, Spurs, Sonics and Hawks have agreed to send their rookies and tryouts to the Revue again this year, but the Bobcats pulled out. After calling around and making his pitch, O'Connor received a commitment from the Sixers for this summer's Revue, tentatively scheduled to run July 14-21 at Salt Lake Community College's Redwood campus.
 
"That gives us three games a day, and gives us a chance to have a couple of days off during the Revue, so teams don't have to play three days in a row," O'Connor said. "It's a good situation for fans, and I think everyone appreciates the fan support we get."

With the Jazz hanging by a thread in the playoff hunt, the Jazz have to wonder where they'd be had Carlos Boozer been healthy and playing the kind of basketball he has played of late.

"I feel great," Boozer said. "I'm not going to rate myself. I know I'm playing well, especially considering my injury. You never know if you have a whole season what develops over the course of it, and I'm just trying to make the most of what I have right now."

Responding to a caller's question about his coaching future while speaking Sunday night on KSL-TV Ch. 5, Jerry Sloan said this: "Maybe he doesn't want me back, or something like that."
     
"He" would be Larry H. Miller, owner of the Jazz.
     
Yet "he" has no idea what would possibly prompt Sloan to even wonder about not being wanted back.
     
"I don't know what it would be," Miller said before the Jazz beat Houston on Monday night at the Delta Center. "I was watching, too. And I kind of went . . . 'Wonder what made him say that?'
     
"In fact," Miller added, "I've done just the opposite with him, where I've reassured him that everything, as far as I'm concerned, in the relationship is still intact."
     
Miller said that the decision on whether or not to return,  belongs to Sloan, who has two years remaining on his current contract.
     
"I've told him it's got to be his call," Miller said, "but he should not do it out of a sense of obligation to the team or to me or anything else. (Only if) he wants to be here."