What will the Utah Jazz do next?

Well, unless they're content to be little more than mediocre and willing to settle for an early playoff exit -- at best -- they'd better get ready to do some wheelin' and dealin" (and spending) in the free agent market this summer.

The Jazz came into last Wednesday's 2002 NBA Draft in desperate need of someone who could provide a consistent outside shooting threat for a team that couldn"t seem to make a clutch jump shot throughout much of last season.

So what'd they do?

Karl Malone's monster truck, the "Power Forward," goes airborne during the Karl Malone Foundation Monster Truck show at the Delta Center Saturday night. At left, the 6-foot-9 Mailman, barely taller than the tires on his truck, greets the crowd at the event.

A look at where the Jazz roster stands for 2002-2003, including detailed projections on the club's eight free agents...

He came to Utah in one of the Jazz's biggest free-agency deals ever, during a summer in which one of their own got away.
     
Now, it seems likely the Jazz's best bet for making a big splash in the 2002 free-agency market will be making sure forward Donyell Marshall does not leave too.
     
Marshall ? acquired two offseasons ago from Golden State as part of the multiteam, multiplayer trade that allowed Utah to recoup some value when guard Howard Eisley decided to fly the coup for big bucks in Dallas ? is the Jazz's highest-profile free agent this offseason.
   
The Jazz said after the 2001-2002 season ended that they want him back; Marshall said late last week that they will be given every opportunity to prove just how strongly they feel.

Like a little kid learning fundamental finance management, the temptations might seem overwhelming.

Blow all of that weekly allowance on candy and gum, or scrimp or save for something much more affordable a year or so from now.

Like, a really cool glove. A shiny new bike. Or that NBA superstar you always wanted, but couldn't always afford.

It is with those memories in mind that the Jazz open this summer's free-agency shopping market ? negotiating can begin Monday, and signing on July 16 ? with patience, not indiscriminate spending, in mind.

"We're going to probably be $12 million to $14 million over the (league-imposed salary) cap still, so we're going to have the mid-level exception and the minimum exception," said Larry H. Miller, the Jazz's self-made millionaire owner.

"So, unless anything fell out of the sky," Miller added, "we'd be spinning our wheels to try to make too much with that."

Karl Malone's skills really are deteriorating.

After many years on the NBA all-interview team, the Jazz star was relegated to the second team this season.

Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag ate some vanilla ice cream and even took a few laps around the nurses station Friday after undergoing surgery to donate a kidney to his younger sister.

Dr. Butch Derrick, right, reports on Greg Ostertag's kidney surgery.

The transplant was performed by doctors at Baylor University Medical Center on Thursday.

Greg Ostertag walked three laps around Dallas' Baylor University Medical Center nurses station on Friday, showing no effects of surgery to remove one of his kidneys the day before, and doctors may send the Jazz center home today.

Meanwhile, Ostertag's sister, the recipient of his kidney in a transplant made necessary by her diabetes, was moved out of the hospital's intensive-care unit. Doctors said the transplanted kidney seems to be functioning normally in Amy Hall, 26, who has had Type 1 diabetes since she was 7. Hall, who also began walking again, is on track to be released as early as Monday.

"In a week, she can go to a restaurant or movie," said surgeon Robert Goldstein, who performed the procedure on Hall. "Anything you or I can do, Amy will be able to do."

Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag's Thursday morning kidney donation to his sister, Amy Hall, was deemed a success by doctors who performed the transplant at Baylor University Medical Center.

If their recoveries go well, the 29-year-old Ostertag will be released Saturday or Sunday. Hall, 26, could go home Monday or Tuesday. As of Thursday night, both were listed in good condition.

"It's already working wonderfully," said Dr. Robert Goldstein, who transplanted Ostertag's 13-centimeter-long left kidney after Drs. Butch Derrick and Matthew Westmoreland removed it via laparoscopic nephrectomy.

Jazz acquisition Curtis Borchardt stood firmly on the issue of his health Thursday, saying he sees no reason why foot woes that caused him to miss 25 games as a freshman and sophomore at Stanford should prove problematic in the NBA.

"Questions popped up (Wednesday), and I don't think I was surprised, because big guys with foot problems . . . sometimes struggle," said Borchardt, who slipped to Orlando at No. 18 before being traded to Utah in Wednesday night's NBA Draft.

"But I'm confident," he added. "I had surgery over a year ago, and I stayed at Stanford and rehabbed for seven months, which is a really long time to rehab for what I had done. So I got myself healthy, and I had a pain-free and healthy year."