But if you think Ante Tomic can fill in for Mehmet Okur should the Jazz's starting center miss the start of next season, think again.
Earlier this year, Tomic — a second-round Jazz draft choice in 2008, No. 44 overall — signed a 3 1/2-year contract with Real Madrid of the Spanish ACB League.
According to multiple NBA sources, the deal does not include an NBA buyout clause prior to the 2010-11 NBA season — meaning the earliest Tomic can get out of the contract and join the Jazz would be in the summer of 2011, if both sides were so inclined.
So so much for the notion of Tomic stepping in for Okur, who on Tuesday underwent surgery to repair the Achilles tendon he ruptured in last Saturday's Game 1 of Utah's first-round NBA playoff series with Denver.