espn insider

nothing on Brand. Mostly rehashing old rumors. Deadline in @2 weeks, I believe.

 

02/20/03

 

Breaking down Week 13
by Chad Ford

Also Below: Lakers' drought over? | Can the Bucks stay on the rebound? | Raptors chasing fools gold | What's gotten into the Hawks? | Trade Rumors: Add Campbell, subtract Fizer | Peep Show

NBA Scouting Report: Who's the most intimidating player?

NBA MVP Watch: No Pacer can be considered

Everyone in the NBA makes a run. No lead is too large. No margin too comfortable. A few 3s here, a turnover or two there, and a team that looked like road kill can experience resurrection.

Two weeks ago, the Lakers' dynasty had crumbled, folks were calling for George Karl's head in Milwaukee, and Lenny Wilkens and Vince Carter were headed for extinction in Toronto.

Not so fast. Fans always want to know why teams wait until the last minute to pull the trigger on mid-season trades. This is why.

Friday, Hawks GM Pete Babcock was openly discussing blowing his team to smithereens. However, a three-game winning streak has the Hawks talking playoffs again.

The NBA's miserable ones are showing signs of a pulse. Are extreme measures no longer necessary?

Lakers' drought over?

The Kings are looking very human without Chris Webber. The Mavs look as puny as ever in the middle. The Suns have lost seven of their last 11.

Several Western Conference teams are thrashing like wounded fish in the water. And the NBA's version of the great white shark has finally awoken from its slumber. The Lakers are beginning to stir. They're winners of seven of their last 10. They're now just one game under .500 and within three-and-a-half games of the eighth seed.

After convincing victories on the road against Phoenix and Sacramento, and a solid victory over the Jazz at home, are the Lakers really back?

Well, we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves. But they do look comfortable in their skin for the first time since June.

"Well, we talked about turning a corner here," Rick Fox told the L.A. Times, "and it's been two months now that we've been talking about it. ... We are doing what we had talked about doing eventually.

"We still have the pieces. We know how to win championships. We just have to be more consistent, and I think we will. I'm not sure I could have said that a month ago. ... When those guys [Shaq and Kobe] both score in the 30s, and Shaq is dominant at both ends, the rest of us know how to maneuver around them. That's how it's always been."

Just a week ago, coach Phil Jackson was wailing about the team's bench. A shocking loss at home to the Warriors had everyone in a state of depression. And trade rumors, virtually non-existent in L.A. the last few years, were running rampant. What a difference three games make. The news gets even better from there. Of the 13 games remaining for the Lakers in February, only five are on the road, and just six are against playoff-caliber teams.

While most have expected a leaner, healthier Shaq to be the catalyst in any late-season run for L.A., it's been Kobe Bryant to the rescue this time around. Bryant has averaged 40 points in the Lakers' last three victories. His coach says Kobe's play can bring the team together.

"Kobe can really unify this team when he wants to bring it to another level, both in moving the ball and scoring with it," Jackson told the Times.

Said Bryant: "All he provided for me was some direction. He just sat me down and said he wanted me to be more aggressive offensively for us and really get it going. And I said, OK, fine, I can do that for you."

He may have to keep it up. Shaq's toe is acting up again, and the Lakers are becoming resigned to the fact that Superman may play more like Clark Kent for the rest of the season.

"He doesn't complain about it," Jackson said. "We're trying to limit his activity a lot in practice, not do too much, where it's a constant aggravation. The mechanics in that toe itself will lend itself to probably being a problem for life."

"It looks like that at times," Fox told the Times. "But I still have a belief that something happens to him, emotionally, the closer it gets to the playoffs. I don't know what it is. Maybe he gets more sleep. Maybe he puts down the badge, stops fighting crime. At times, it has looked very difficult for him to do the things he's doing in the paint."


Can the Bucks stay on the rebound?

Rebound.

The Bucks entered January with a 13-19 record. After Saturday's 107-100 victory over the Knicks, they are 24-22. They're winners of eight of their last 10. Eleven of their last 15. The Bucks are on the rebound. Now, if only they could rebound.

Coach George Karl's team still ranks 28th in the league in rebounding, despite its recent run. The Bucks' top rebounder, Anthony Mason, averages just 7.3 rpg. Their next-best rebounder? Tim Thomas at a mere 5 rpg. That's ugly, and Karl knows it.

"We have to rebound as a team," Karl told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Our guards are going to have to rebound at a higher level than most teams, because we're not going to have that big man that's going to get 15 or 18 [rebounds] every night."

The Bucks have been mentioned in a flurry of trade rumors over the last month as they struggle to find an inside presence to complement the strong perimeter play of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and Michael Redd. Karl has struggled to find any consistency at either power forward or center. Mason and Jason Caffey do most of the work on the block for the Bucks. Ervin Johnson, Joel Przybilla and rookie Dan Gadzuric have all struggled to get in done in the middle.

Is there any team in the NBA with a worse collection of bigs than the Bucks? Only the Magic, Sixers, Wizards and Celtics even come close. Luckily for Milwaukee, they all play in the Eastern Conference. That gives Karl hope that even without a deal, the Bucks can maintain their winning ways.

The Bucks are ranked fifth in the league in scoring and third in field-goal percentage (45.6%). That helps explain why the offensive rebounds aren't coming. There aren't as many chances to begin with.

"I'm a big believer that sometimes the rebound stat gets a lot of credit it doesn't deserve," Karl said. "A lot of teams that rebound usually play big guys that can't shoot."


Raptors chasing fools gold

Vince Carter is the savior. Lenny Wilkens survives to see another day. And the Raptors, winners of three of their last four since Carter's return, live happily ever after.

The story gets even better. The Raptors, along with the Hawks, Magic and Heat, are among the most active teams as the trade deadline nears. GM Glen Grunwald already has made a pitch for the Blazers' Rasheed Wallace and the Hawks' Theo Ratliff. It's clear he is looking for a solid, young, athletic big man to take help share the scoring burden with Carter.

Now pinch yourself twice and rub your eyes. Last week's "new" Raptors are a mirage. A tease. A $55 million pipe dream wrapped in a enigma.

The Raptors would have to go 28-7 the rest of the way to finish at .500. And while nine of their next 15 games are against teams with sub-.500 records, you can do the math and figure out that even if the Raptors go 9-6 during that stretch, they're just one loss away from getting the worst seats in the house for the lottery.

So forget about the roar of the crowd, the high fives or guys talking about coming together. Grunwald knows better, and he's doing his darndest to shake his team up before everyone begins remembering how bad it really is.

The question, given the Raptors' miserable record, is whether it matters at this point. It's almost impossible for this team to make the playoffs. If they aren't going to do that, why not give Vince some rest and have a sweet shot at landing LeBron James. He'll do a helluva lot more for the franchise than either Wallace or Ratliff.


What's gotten into the Hawks?

Friday, the NBA's chaplain was reading Pete Babcock his last rites. Monday, his Hawks are talking playoffs.

Playoffs?!?

"We've got a long way to go, but we're in the hunt," interim head coach Terry Stotts told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "We've got [34] games left, and a lot can happen."

That's right. The Hawks, winners of five of their last six, suddenly find themselves just four games out of the last playoff spot in the East. With teams like the Magic, Wizards and Hornets all fading, maybe things aren't nearly as dire as we all believed on Friday, when GM Pete Babcock claimed that his rebuilding plan had failed, "across the board."

In the span of the last five games, Glenn Robinson is averaging 25.2 ppg and 7.4 rpg, Shareef Abdur-Rahim is averaging 22.4 ppg and 10.4 rpg, and Theo Ratliff is averaging 4 blocks per game. Even Dion Glover is getting in on the action. Sunday, Glover hung 22 points, 10 boards and five assists on the Magic.

That has to be terrible news to a number of teams looking to fleece the Hawks of their talent. Said one GM over the weekend. "No one has been more aggressive on the phones than Atlanta. However, you have to wonder if they don't step back a bit at this point. Do you really blow up a team that's won five of their last six? Maybe Babcock should go back to the original plan which was, as I understand it, to get a veteran point guard to stabilize the backcourt."

That's an interesting argument, and a virtual nightmare to teams like the Sonics, Spurs, Sixers, Raptors, Lakers and Heat who have been licking their chops to get ahold of players such as Abdur-Rahim, Ratliff and Jason Terry. But let's not go overboard.

Two of those five wins came against the lowly Cavs, and Sunday's win wasn't much more impressive. With Grant Hill out, the Magic have Tracy McGrady and very little else to rely on. While their next three games are all winable (Golden State at home, Raptors and Heat on the road) it gets much, much tougher from there. The Hawks have eight of their next nine games on the road, including games against the Pacers, Mavs, and Blazers.

In other words, the road ahead becomes much, much rockier.

"I don't think this changes anything," another league executive told Insider. "They are convinced, and I believe rightly so, that this combination of players isn't going to win any championship for them. They're better of trading away their guys and rebuilding through free agency and the draft. They need to get younger, more athletic and much more balanced. The trick will be convincing teams to take on those long term contracts. They have plenty of talent to offer, but I don't know anyone who's jumping to add a long term, $10 million a year contract to their payroll right now."


Trade Rumors: Add Campbell, subtract Fizer

Speaking of waiting to the last second to pull the trigger on trade talks . . . that strategy can backfire on you as well.

Just look at the Bulls, who learned this weekend that they've lost Marcus Fizer for the rest of the season. While GM Jerry Krause continues to deny that he's shopped Fizer at all, numerous GMs have told Insider over the past few weeks that the Bulls were still trying to work out a big package for another young stud that included Fizer and Jamal Crawford.

Several teams in need of low-post muscle and scoring, including the Sonics, T-Wolves, Raptors, Heat and Magic, were interested. But with Fizer out of the mix with a torn ACL, Krause's dreams of a big deadline deal seem to be fading quickly.

After Saturday's news, Krause engaged in a little revisionist history.

"We've got 15 players we like," Krause told the Chicago Tribune. "We weren't looking to trade Marcus. If we add somebody, we'd have to waive somebody and there's not a lot out there that I'd rather have."

Elden Campbell is the latest player in the last year of his contract to hit the rumor mill. Campbell, who has struggled through injuries all season, lost his starting job to a younger and more athletic Jamaal Magloire. The Hornets aren't expected to re-sign him this summer and several teams have called about his availability.

Among the interested teams? The New York Daily News reports that the Hornets called the Sonics about a possible Kenny Anderson-for-Campbell swap but were turned away. Instead, the Sonics are trying to parlay Anderson into a young player or draft picks. Given the Sonics' desperate need for some low-post help, this is just more evidence that the front office is resigned to rebuilding the team.

The Daily News also mentions the Spurs and Knicks as possible destinations for Campbell.

In the same report, the Daily News says that the Lakers have shown interest in adding Latrell Sprewell to the mix. That would be interesting . . .

This report comes on the heels of rumors earlier in the week that the Sixers had offered to swap Keith Van Horn for Spree. Given GM Scott Layden's "let's rebuild the state of Utah in Manhattan" rebuilding strategy, it's amazing they didn't grab Van Horn and immediately offer him a lifetime extension.

How desperate have the Magic become for a big man? The word over the weekend was that they too had entered the bidding war for Theo Ratliff. How bizarre is that? Unless they plan on moving Grant Hill as part of that deal, how can management justify having two chronic injury list players making the max on the same roster? And if the Hawks are really considering swapping for Hil, they're even more screwed up than we thought.

And in Memphis, a few more GMs commented to Insider this weekend that the Grizzlies are putting out word that they're willing to part with either Drew Gooden or Pau Gasol. Whichever player brings the more lucrative bounty could be gone in the next couple of weeks, especially if a team is willing to agree to a package deal that rids the Grizzlies of the long-term contracts of Lorenzen Wright and Jason Williams. Jerry West is tired of being hamstrung by the salary cap and is apparently ready to pay a big, big price to get some flexibility this year or the next.


Peep Show

Dallas Mavericks: Nick Van Exel believes that the Mavs need to trade him to get a tough, established low-post presence. "If they can get a good deal for a big guy, I've got to be honest with myself about it," Van Exel told the Dallas Morning News. "I could see why they'd do it. We got guys who can get us where we want to go. But if I was GM and I saw there was a big man out there who we knew would help us and put us over the top, I'd do it in a heartbeat. We saw how it was last year in the playoffs. It gets tougher and tougher in the playoffs as you go along." He's probably right, but given his outrageous contract, the Mavs will have a hard time finding a team willing to give up their enforcer for Van Exel.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Vice president Kevin McHale said it would be difficult, but he did concede that trading injured point guard Terrell Brandon is a possibility. "Ideally, you'd like to have him playing, or if he can't play, you'd like to be able to replace him with an equal player," McHale told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "No matter how you slice and dice it, I think everybody would agree that he was probably a top-10 player at his position. You'd like to be able to replace him with another top-10 player... whether it's a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. It's hard to do." Instead, he could actually make the situation worse. "Unfortunately, what you'd probably end up doing is taking on bad contracts, more than anything else. But you know, you have to weigh all your options and everything else."

Chicago Bulls: For now, franchise point guard Jay Williams will have to play the understudy for a while. After winning (some say stealing) the starting spot in the preseason, former franchise point guard Jamal Crawford will be allowed to run the show a little longer. Got all of that? "The rotation has been OK," coach Bill Cartwright told the Chicago Tribune. "Unless something happens, it'll stay the same." That clears everything up.

Indiana Pacers: Is the league out to get the Pacers? GM Donnie Walsh, coach Isiah Thomas and veteran Reggie Miller are beginning to wonder. After Thomas' two-game suspension, Miller called the move another example of "the league trying to keep a good, young team down." Thomas agrees. "I think in all of these incidents, we didn't provoke any of them," Thomas told the Indianapolis Star. "We defended ourselves when someone was attacking us. Whenever the league has had a chance to give punishment, it's been very harsh when it comes to the Indiana Pacers." Is it possible that the Pacers just have bad timing? With little incidents popping up all over the NBA, perhaps the league is just cracking down. "That's probably the justification, but that's not what was told to me [by senior vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson]," Walsh said. "But if you're asking me to rationalize it, that's probably right."

Los Angeles Clippers: The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke did a great piece this weekend on the NBA's saddest, loneliest man, Clipps GM Elgin Baylor. Despite his team's implosion and the cheapskate ways of owner Donald Sterling, Baylor remains true to his team. "I love Southern California, my home is here, I'm not going anywhere," he said. "I'm not retiring. I'm not quitting. I don't quit. I look for the light at the end of the tunnel. I always look for the light." That is until Donald starts refusing to pay the electricity bill.

 

More insiders Feb 4th 2003


LeBron James is on everyone's mind these days. But for all the wrong reasons. What's he wearing? (Wes Unseld?? C'mon, LeBron.) Who's he hanging out with? (Keeping company with Allen Iverson might not be good for your career.) What's he driving today? (Hummer should just give him the car after all the free pub they've gotten lately.) Basketball? That will come later.


Darko Milicic, 17, is seven feet tall and has a full complement of skills.
If NBA commissioner David Stern had his way, basketball in the NBA would come much later for James. In Stern's world, James would have to wait another two years before entering the draft. Were it not for a collective bargaining agreement that gives high school players the right to enter the draft after their senior year, James would be traveling with Globetrotters, firing up 3-pointers for Bennetton Treviso in Italy or, even worse, playing pick-up ball with Lenny Cooke for the next couple of years.

Sure, you feel sorry for James now. But we all know his fate. He'll hang out for a few months, start negotiating with a shoe company, shoot a commercial or two, make enough benjamins to buy 50 Hummers, and then he'll stiff everyone trying to work him out before the draft, and barring some career-threatening injury while playing golf, he'll still be the first player taken when Stern strides to the podium on draft night.

Oh, to be LeBron James. But while James' NBA future is largely resolved, the future of the world's other teen phenom is in much more doubt.

Yugoslavian big man Darko Milicic, the kid Insider traveled halfway around the world to see in December, is waiting anxiously by the phone. Since Stern can't stop King James from polluting the NBA with his athleticism, well-rounded game and mature demeanor on and off the court, he's taking his wrath out on a 17-year-old with a lot less leverage.

For those of you who have missed our reports over the last few months, the NBA has determined that Milicic and another young phenom, Greek big man Sofaklis Schortsianides, are ineligible to declare for this year's draft.

At issue is an arcane section of the collective bargaining agreement that puts a limit on when international players are eligible to be drafted.

ARTICLE X, Section 6(c) reads, in part: "... A foreign player who is at least eighteen (1 years old and who has not exercised intercollegiate basketball eligibility in the United States shall become eligible to be selected in an NBA draft held prior to the calendar year in which he has his twenty-second (22nd) birthday if he expresses his desire to become eligible to be selected in the next NBA draft by written notice to the NBA at least forty-five (45) days prior to such draft."

Both Milicic and Schortsianides will be 18 before the June 26 draft. But the league's interpretation of that section -- that a player must be 18 when he officially declares for the draft -- has created a small firestorm.

Here's the problem: The deadline for declaring for the draft this year is May 12. Milicic turns 18 on June 20. Schortsianides turns 18 on June 22.

"Our lawyers feel that the language is very clear," NBA spokesperson Tim Frank told Insider. "You've got to be 18 years old to declare for the NBA draft if you are an international prospect."

Just about everyone else in the NBA disagrees. Insider spoke to several GMs around the league who claim they were shocked by the ruling.

"The language isn't clear," one GM told Insider. "I don't see why we are going here. These kids are professionals. They are more prepared to play than many of the college and high school kids we'll let in the draft. I think it's going overboard. I don't know of a GM out there that doesn't want to see these kids in the draft."

The agents for the two players, Marc Cornstein and Mark Fleisher, believe the section simply means you must be 18 by draft night. They've petitioned the NBA Players Association to file a collective bargaining grievance on their behalf. The union spent about a month studying the issue, then threw it to the players' executive committee for a decision.

The initial call, which took place a little over a month ago, didn't go well. While NBPA president Billy Hunter seems to be all for fighting it (it's consistent with his ongoing feud with Stern over age limits), the players weren't sure why it was such a big deal. The committee is made up of NBA veterans. Pistons small forward Michael Curry is the president, and veterans such as Ray Allen, Alonzo Mourning, Antonio Davis and Theo Ratliff serve as vice presidents. Why can't the kids wait another year, they reasoned? Why spend the union's time and resources to get jobs for kids who will quickly replace a veteran who is already in the league?

It's not a surprising response. The players, understandably, look out for themselves. The committee plans to meet formally on Saturday in Atlanta to give Cornstein and Fleisher its decision. But the situation has raised some tensions among international players already in the NBA. Several people have pointed out that there aren't any international players on the league's executive committee. There have been subtle accusations from some that the NBA's decision is xenophobic. That American players, still stung from Team USA's loss in the World Championships, aren't as willing to open the floodgates to international players.

How passionate are some international players on the issue? I got a call from Vlade Divac Monday night. Divac believes the players should fight the NBA's decision to keep Milicic and Schortsianides out of the draft.

"They should let them [Milicic and Schortsianides] play if they want to play," Divac told Insider Monday night. "He's a professional. He plays in the top league in Yugoslavia and more than holds his own. He isn't some high school kid."

Divac knows a thing or two about starting your professional career early. He signed his first pro contract in Yugoslavia when he was 16. He owns the Partizan team in Belgrade, which has players who signed contracts as early as 15 years old. "That is the way it is over there, but I don't think it makes a difference. In many ways it's better. Here, LeBron James gets suspended for getting a couple of jerseys. But it's different in Europe. We don't hold kids back if they think they're ready."

Indeed. Milicic has been playing professionally for more than two years. He already has signed a shoe deal with AND-1. He knows what it's like to play on the road, practice every day, deal with an agent and a throng of adoring fans. But is he really ready? Divac has seen Milicic play a number of times, but refused to speculate on how he'd do in the NBA.

"It's hard to tell. But that's not the point. He should have the chance. They let kids like Kobe, KG in. The league should treat international players like everyone else. If he thinks he's ready and NBA teams are willing to take him, what does that say? Who is the NBA protecting by keeping him out. Everyone thinks he'll go No. 2 in the draft. That's your answer right there."

Still, the sentiment right now is that the NBPA won't file a grievance. If it doesn't, Fleisher and Cornstein have two choices. They can drop it and wait another year before entering their clients' names in the draft. Or they can move forward without the support of the union. Based on precedent, Fleisher told Insider on Monday night that the 17-year-olds would have standing to challenge the NBA's ruling. According to bylaws, they could appeal the ruling to a system arbitrator. However, there's a catch. Right now the league doesn't have one. If there isn't an arbitrator, Fleisher and Cornstein can take their case directly to federal court.

Fleisher says he'll move forward with or without the NBPA's help. "We'd like them to support us on this, but we have other options if they don't."

You can expect the league to put up a fight if that happens, but whatever the outcome, one source inside the league office feels the NBA will have won. "We've been consistent in our stance that players are entering the league too young," he told Insider. "If an arbitrator or court feels differently, there isn't much we can do. But at least we've been consistent."

Tell that to Milicic, who remains holed up in the sleepy, ice covered town of Vrsac while King James prepares to reap untold fame and fortune in the NBA.


Is the salary cap slipping away?

If the bad economy, declining television revenues and empty arenas aren't enough to depress NBA teams, Insider learned Monday that things could get much worse this summer.

Insider talked to several league cap experts on Monday and all of them were preaching the same message. The salary cap for next season will either stay the same (it's set at $40.2 million this year) or go down. That's right folks. It might go down. How far down? No one has exact estimates, but at least a couple of scenarios have it falling to around $39 million next season.

For you optimists out there, you might as well throw out the rosy reports that the cap could creep back up to $42 million. It ain't going to happen.

"Unless you go out and buy about $20 million worth of tickets," one source said, there's no way the cap is going up next season. That forecast will potentially crush teams like the Magic and Heat, who are struggling to at least have enough cap space to outbid a team with a mid-level exception.

Believe it or not, that's the good news. The bad news is that the luxury-tax threshold may fall with the cap. Current projections have the luxury-tax threshold falling to about $52.4 million. If that is the number, 16 teams, according to Insider's calculations, will owe the tax next year.

Portland will pay the heftiest tax bill. The Blazers will owe David Stern and company $52,803,092 in taxes. The Knicks aren't far behind with a tax bill of $41,335,752. Dallas ($18,442,321), Sacramento ($17,738,952), Philadelphia ($12,841,196) and the L.A. Lakers ($10,283,011) all will have tax bills over $10 million. Currently, under that scenario, Atlanta, Indiana, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio and Toronto also would owe luxury taxes.

However, if the threshold falls by just $1 million more, two other teams that were playing it close -- Boston and Seattle -- also will slip into luxury-tax land.

The penalty will be doubly hard for teams that owe the tax. Not only do they have to pay Stern for having an over-bloated roster, they also miss out on a cash windfall at the end of the season. The league plans to disperse the taxes paid by offenders to the teams that didn't cross the threshold. Add in lost revenues from the players' escrow rebates and some teams could be looking at losing an additional $8 to $10 million in potential revenue.

Now you know why everyone under the sun is trying to trade players with long-term deals (even good ones) in return for players whose contracts are expiring at the end of this year.

"With this tax coming, the climate has changed drastically," an Eastern Conference GM told the New York Daily News. "Now, every team in the league is looking to purge the overbearing salary from their roster. It's on everyone's minds. My owner has been chirping in my ear to cut salaries."

GMs can still add, but under one practically unattainable condition.

"The player has to be big-time, a difference-maker, along the lines of Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant or Jason Kidd," another executive told the Daily News. "Those kinds of guys are worth that kind of penalty."


Swift-Miller deal back on the table?

Is Pau Gasol or Drew Gooden really on the trading block? Will the Grizzlies just give away Lorenzen Wright or Jason Williams just to shed a salary or two? Several GMs claim that the Grizzlies are putting out the word that they're open for business. Their story is that Jerry West is willing to dangle one of his building blocks to any team willing to rid him of two of the Grizzlies' worst contracts.

West, for the record, doesn't know what they're talking about.

"I like to win more than any one," West told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "But I'm not going to do something stupid. Sometimes, winning is a process."

Yes, West would like more cap flexibility. He'd love to recreate the Grizzlies in his own image and knows he needs the cap space to do it. On the other hand, he's not, as some reports have suggested, just going to swap Gooden for Mike Dunleavy. He wants to make a move that makes sense. That one does nothing to either clear the cap or give the Grizzlies more firepower now.

However, just because West doesn't want to make a stupid trade, it doesn't mean he isn't willing to make one at all. Two league sources told Insider Monday that the Grizzlies appear to be resurrecting talks with the Magic about a Mike Miller-for-Stromile Swift swap. The two teams have talked about this deal several times over the course of the last eight months. However, the Magic have been reluctant to pull the trigger because of the uncertainty surrounding Grant Hill.

So why are the Magic listening again when Hill's future has never been more hazy? The Magic have been trying to pry away Gooden to no avail. However, the Grizzlies are now apparently willing to include international sharp shooter Gordan Giricek to make the Magic whole. While Giricek isn't as accomplished as Miller, he, along with Pat Garrity, should be able to handle the workload at small forward in Hill's absence. Swift would give the Magic the young, athletic low-post player they've coveted for a while. While he isn't the star-caliber player they hoped to land, Swift is probably the best young talent that's actually available.

The Grizzlies, who have a log jam at power forward with Gasol, Wright, Gooden and Swift, have coveted Miller for a while. To make the deal work financially, the Magic would have to throw in center Andrew DeClercq. That's great news for the Grizzlies. DeClercq has a team option on his contract for next season. If the Grizzlies aren't interested, they could clear over $3 million in cap space next summer by letting him go.


Knicks burning the phone lines

Here's a news flash. Multiple New York newspapers are reporting that Scott Layden is working the phones, trying to put together a big deal before the Feb. 20th trade deadline. His trade bait? You guessed it again! Latrell Sprewell.

Rumors have been floating for a week that the Sixers (offering Keith Van Horn) and the Lakers (offering who knows what) are in the hunt for Spree. How, in the name of P.J. Carlesimo, would Spree mesh with with Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant? Terribly. But that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning.

Of course, if you believe what the Knicks are saying, something has to churn. You can't land a superstar for nothing. The Knicks have no real expiring contracts to offer, no young players with potential to dangle . . . they have Spree, Kurt Thomas and a bunch of overpaid role players nobody wants.

So it's got to be Spree, right? The New York Daily News reports that even in this era of fiscal responsibility, Spree and his $12 million a year salary may have some trade value. But there's a pretty big if attached. Sprewell's deal seems affordable, especially for a team thinking it is one piece away from winning a title.

"His contract isn't bad, if the Knicks are willing to take more money back in exchange," one Western Conference owner told the Daily News.

Any other year, that would be an option for Layden. But Garden CEO James Dolan has made it clear this year that he's sick of the Knicks overspending. According to the Daily News, Layden is looking for either an all-star caliber player in return, or players whose contracts would be up this year or next, in order to gain cap flexibility.

If that's the case, Layden might as well tilt at windmills. The Knicks may be better off keeping Spree anyway. With Spree in the lineup this season, the team is 19-19. With Antonio McDyess back next year, second-round pick Milos Vujanic coming aboard, and a free-agent pickup or two, what's to stop the Knicks from being competitive next season?

"It's evident how important Latrell is to our team by the record since he's been back," Layden told Newsday. "I think we're all disappointed at the record as it stands now, but we feel good about recent play with the team intact as it is now. . .We would look to make a change if we thought it would improve the team. But you look at our team now and you have to feel good about the group and the camaraderie. When you look at how well we're playing together right now, you've got to be excited about the prospects of this group being together."


Will the Nuggets be horri-bull for a while?

Say whatever you will about Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe's decision to blow his team to smithereens, draft a couple of international prospects and pray that a couple of free agents flee to Denver this summer. It was bold.

Vandeweghe already has the international prospects, is in line to be a contender for LeBron James this summer and he's already cleared about $18 million in cap space to lure free agents. Now comes the hard part. Convincing someone to take his money.

More than one writer has suggested that the Nuggets may have fallen into the same trap the Bulls did in 2000, when they cleared all of that cap space and, one by one, the NBA's top free agents said no thanks. Rocky Mountain News writer Chris Tommasson quizzed Bulls GM Jerry Krause about the experience on Monday.

"It's taken a little longer than we expected," Krause told the Rocky Mountain News. "But it takes time to build a winning team."

Grant Hill, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Eddie Jones and even Tim Thomas all have shunned the Bulls at one time or another.

"We got two free agents we wanted in the last few years in Donyell Marshall (in 2002) and Eddie Robinson (in 2001), and we didn't get a couple we wanted the year before," Krause said. "But that's part of the business. We had one guy [Jones] who told me he was going to come, and then didn't."

"They didn't have all the necessary pieces to entice somebody," Memphis coach Hubie Brown said. "You may have maximum money, but your supporting cast is weak. A player might be leaving a situation where he doesn't think he can win, so he might be saying, 'Why should I go someplace else and take less money (teams can re-sign their own free agents for more) and it's just as bad a situation.' "

Should Vandeweghe be worried? Probably not. The economic realities of the NBA have changed dramatically since the summer of 2000. Teams are much more fiscally responsible and only a handful of clubs will have the cap room or the green light to be offering max contracts. Given the wealth of players out there, and the positive reputation that Vandeweghe holds among players (coaching at Pete Newell's big-man camp the past few years hasn't hurt), it's unlikely that the Nuggets will fall into the same trap.

"I think in some ways they executed their plan pretty well," Vandeweghe said. "But it's a long process to rebuild. It doesn't happen overnight. After they blew up their team, there were perhaps some hard feelings. Hopefully, we've created a positive atmosphere. I love our city. I think we have great advantages."