Okur return has Jefferson giddy

The happiest man in Jazzland to have back Mehmet Okur?
It may just be Al Jefferson, who has been starting in the center spot at which Okur has opened — prior to this season — throughout his lengthy career with the Jazz.
Second-happiest?
Perhaps power forward Paul Millsap.
It’s all a result of how Okur — who played his second game of the season in Saturday night’s win at Milwaukee — can create space, stretching the floor with his solid long-distance shooting.
“He’s gonna help me more than anything,” Jefferson said.
“Because Paul can do a great job at (creating room) too, but Memo can take it all the way back to the 3,” he added. ” So he’s gonna help me and Paul.”
Two outings into his return from the torn Achilles tendon he sustained in Game 1 of last season’s first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets, Okur — playing for now on medically restricted minutes, 11 in his season debut Friday at New Orleans and 13 on Saturday in Milwaukee — has mostly been playing next to either Jefferson or Millsap up front.
When he camps out on the trey line and pulls the man guarding him out there as well, as he so often is apt to do, that opens all sorts of inside real estate in which either Jefferson or Millsap can go to work.
No wonder Jefferson — acquired by the Jazz last offseason — bristled recently when how he felt about the impact minutes for Okur might have on his own playing time.
“I’m not concerned about minutes,” Jefferson said, “because Memo’s gonna be just a great addition to the team.”

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