Two-and-a-half weeks into the NBA's summer free-agency signing period, all the Jazz have to show for their $21 million in available under-the-salary-cap payroll for next season is the return of Carlos Arroyo.

"Sure," exec Kevin O'Connor says, "it's a frustration."

That's no dis to Arroyo, the team's No. 3 point guard in 2002-03. It's just that with so much money available to buy a premier player, or two, or even three, many expected much more from the Jazz by now. O'Connor knows it, too.

But regrets? O'Connor has none.

If he were able to do it all over again, in fact, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations suggests he would not at all alter Utah's approach to its July spending plan ? which basically involved targeting young stars who should continue to get better, even though most were restricted free agents, meaning their most-recent team had the right to match any offer made to them.

The alternative for a team with so much salary space, of course, would have been to pursue high-profile unrestricted free agents ? the Tim Duncans, Jason Kidds and Jermaine O'Neals of the NBA world.

But doing that, O'Connor says, would have proven just as fruitless ? especially considering how Duncan considered nothing but resigning with his NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs, and how Kidd and O'Neal quickly followed suit by re-signing with their own teams, New Jersey and Indiana, respectively.

"Whether it's a Jason Kidd or a Jermaine O'Neal," O'Connor said, "you're at a real disadvantage."