Decisions that would guarantee extending the Suns careers of Joe Johnson and Casey Jacobsen must be wrapped up by Sunday.
But the Suns almost certainly will pass on the opportunity.

"It's unlikely" the Suns will negotiate a long-term contract extension for Johnson or pick up the fourth-year option on Jacobsen, Suns president Bryan Colangelo confirmed Wednesday.

Both likely will become restricted free agents, meaning the Suns can match any offer for them next summer.

Said Colangelo, "Decisions to not sign them now do not preclude us from signing them in the future."

These apparent decisions mean they could lose Johnson, in particular, if another team with salary-cap space makes a monstrous offer, such as the $68 million deal given to Carlos Boozer, who jumped from Cleveland to Utah this past summer.

The Suns, as previously announced, picked up the fourth-year option on star forward Amare Stoudemire Wednesday, meaning he'll be under contract through the 2005-06 season. They'll hope to negotiate a long-term deal with him next year.

But they did not do the same on Jacobsen, who ? along with Stoudemire? was drafted in Round 1 of the 2002 NBA draft. Both are paid relatively modestly under terms of the NBA's rookie scale for the first four years.

The fourth-year option for Jacobsen for the ?05-06 season would have cost the Suns about $1.8 million. The guard from Stanford had a disappointing rookie season, then bounced back to have a solid second year.

Jacobsen, after an exhibition game Tuesday night, said he understood that incoming owner Robert Sarver wanted to maintain budget flexibility and that, "If it hasn't happened by now, I'm assuming it's not going to happen." He was correct, as it turned out. "It's not a reflection of what we think of Casey as a person and as a player," Colangelo said. "It's a function of maintaining flexibility."

Johnson's situation is more complicated than Jacobsen's. The Suns could have given him a big contract that extends over six seasons, starting in '05-06. Instead, he now likely will await offers next summer. With the Suns adding firepower for this season, Johnson's statistics could decrease, perhaps cutting the price Johnson could command.