Friday Insider

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Can the Heat survive

without Zo?

by Chad Ford

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Also Below: Wallace says Celtics will survive without a point guard | Is the Dream over for Olajuwon? | Stackhouse part of the Jordan Bunch? | Clippers clarification

NBA position battles: Does Derek Fisher belong in the Laker triangle?

NBA Free Agent Watch

Alonzo Mourning's battle with a debilitating kidney illness, focal glomerulosclerosis, took a sad turn for the worse Thursday when doctors told him that he should not play in the NBA for the foreseeable future.

Coach Pat Riley confirmed Thursday night that Mourning will likely miss the season. "His levels have deteriorated, and because of that, he probably won't be playing," Riley told Bloomberg News. "He has been playing with this for two years, and he has to get it right."

Zo, hands down the toughest player in the NBA, has fallen again. After the last two seasons, in which Zo defied the odds and found the courage and the strength to bounce back from a serious kidney illness, we've come to expect that nothing can hold Mourning down for the count.

After a miraculous recovery and two years of improvement, the latest setback has those close to him whispering retirement for the first time.

"[Mourning] said, 'It doesn't look good,' '' former teammate Tim Hardaway told the Miami Herald. "He wasn't right. He wasn't feeling good. He should not come back to play. This is a sign."

The Heat have called a press conference today to give a more definitive take on Zo's future, but there seems to be no question that once again, just weeks before the start of training camp, the Heat are up the creek.

With Zo, the Heat were seriously thinking about the playoffs again. The additions of Travis Best and rookie Caron Butler addressed two huge needs, and the Heat looked poised to regain their elite status in the East. Without him, the team may be in serious trouble unless something is done quickly.

Vladimir Stepania and Sean Marks are the only other centers under contract right now. Brian Grant, who played well at center two years ago during Zo's first extended absence, is likely to get the call early. But in 2000, Riley had the luxury of putting Anthony Mason in at power forward. This season, LaPhonso Ellis and second-year player Malik Allen are the only other big forwards under contract.

Clearly, the team needs some help. The challenge is finding that help without blowing all of the cap room the Heat have cleared for next summer. Now, more than ever, the Heat need that money to stabilize their future.

That leaves Miami with two choices. They can try to sign several marginal free agents to one-year contracts or they can put Eddie Jones back on the trading block in an effort to get several quality players in return.

The free-agent pickings are slim. Wang Zhizhi is the best free-agent center still out there. However, he's restricted and looking for a significant long-term deal. If the Heat were to sign him, much of the cap room they cleared would disappear.

The team has also been talking with T-Wolves restricted free agent Loren Woods. Woods would come cheaper and would be willing to sign a multi-year contract that included a team option after year one. Several foreign centers, including Argentina's Ruben Wolkowysky and Yugoslavia's Dejan Koturovic, are also available.

The Heat could also decide to sign a veteran power forward if the team is confident that Grant can play center full time. Veteran Charles Oakley has said in the past that he would love to be reunited with Riley. His agent told the Miami Herald that he would be willing to accept the one-year veteran minimum. One league source told Insider that Oakley has spent much of the summer working out with Michael Jordan at Hoops Gym in Chicago. According to the source, he's in fantastic shape.

Other free-agent power forwards who would play for cheap include Popeye Jones, Darvin Ham, Gary Trent and Grant Long. The Heat could also try to lure Chris Gatling back from Russia (how hard can that be?).

On the trade front, Jones would be difficult, but not impossible to move. Jones makes $11.2 million this season and has five years remaining on his contract. Not many teams are in need of a two guard, but a few deals make some sense.

New Grizzlies president Jerry West has been rumored to be interested in Jones. For a deal to work financially under the cap, however, it would have to include several players. A Jones-and-Anthony Carter-for-Michael Dickerson, Stromile Swift, Brevin Knight and Tony Massenburg trade would address several needs for the Heat and it wouldn't adversely affect their cap next summer. Actually, with Massenburg coming off the books at the end of the season, the Heat would clear an additional million in cap room. For the Grizzlies, Jones would give them a veteran defender in the backcourt and it would clear up a logjam at power forward.

The Jazz have also been quietly trolling for a shooting guard. A Jones-for-Greg Ostertag, John Amaechi and DeShawn Stevenson trade also works under the cap and wouldn't hurt the short-term financial health of either team — both teams would still have major cap room next summer. In fact, in two years, the Heat would clear another $10 million in additional cap room. The question is whether the Jazz can afford to part with Ostertag with the health of Curtis Borchardt up in the air.

Mourning might not play this season

Stephen Holder / Miami Herald

Heat options few and far from pretty

Ira Winderman / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Zo still can be a winner by retiring and living full life

Greg Cote / Miami Herald

Mourning Probably Will Miss NBA Season, Riley Says

Bob Bensch / Bloomberg

Wallace says Celtics will survive without a point guard

Rod Strickland is not going to be a Celtic. Neither are any of the other top point guards left out there on the free-agent market.

"We've had no discussions with Rod at all," Celtics GM Chris Wallace told Insider Thursday. Wallace was refuting a published report out of Cleveland that claimed the Celtics and Cavs were both after Strickland. "We have our point guards. After Travis Best decided to sign with Miami, we decided to move on and add one more big man to the roster."

Shammond Williams. Tony Delk. J.R. Bremer. Get used to these names. Together, they'll try to fill the shoes of recently departed Kenny Anderson.

Two years ago, most observers would have said "big deal." But it was Anderson's play, in part, that put the Celtics into the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Yes, Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker were the main catalysts, but Anderson played a huge role down the stretch for the Celtics. His trade to the Sonics, along with Vitaly Potapenko, for Vin Baker and Shammond Williams had many around the league scratching their heads.

Wallace isn't concerned.

"With the way we play, we can get away with it," Wallace said. "Antoine is a quasi-point guard. Much of the offense is run through him anyway. In our system, the key thing for our point guards is perimeter shooting. It's really more important to us than playmaking."

If that's the case, the Celtics should be in business. Both Delk and Williams are excellent outside shooters. They don't, however, have much depth up front. Baker, Walker, Tony Battie and Bruno Sundov will anchor the frontline in Boston. Wallace would like to add one more big man to the mix.

Over the last week he's had serious discussions with two international centers — Argentina's Ruben Wolkowysky and Yugoslavia's Dejan Koturovic — but hasn't decided exactly what he wants to do. He's also talked with Mark Pope and Dean Garrett, but it appears that Wallace, like so many other GM's, is sold on getting an experienced foreign player.

"I think a few years ago the thinking around the league was that taking older international players was a risk," Wallace said. "That's obviously changed. [The Pistons] Zeljko Rebraca had a great year last season. I think for a playoff team like us, what you're looking for is maturity. Both of those guys have that."

Is the Dream over for Olajuwon?

Alonzo Mourning wasn't the only big name center to get some bad news Thursday.

Raptors big man Hakeem Olajuwon failed his physical with Raptors team doctors meaning that there's a good chance his playing days in Toronto are over.

Olajuwon, who has a bad disc in his back and accelerated degeneration in most of his joints, has returned to his off-season home to ponder his options. Will he retire?

"It's a personal decision for Hakeem," Raptors GM Glen Grunwald told the Toronto Sun. "We've provided him with a rehabilitation program but there are questions as to whether that can help, I don't really know if he's going to be at training camp (which begins on Oct. 1)."

Olajuwon has struggled with injuries the last few seasons. Should he retire or be physically unable to perform, his loss would not have a major impact on the Raptors. The Raptors have plenty of big men including Antonio Davis, Eric Montross, Michael Stewart, Mamadou N'diaye and Nate Huffman.

"He's always had some health problems," Grunwald said. "But the back is really something that's maybe newer and become a little more serious than it has in the recent past. He was complaining about it, that it was getting progressively worse over the course of the summer. That's why we had it checked out. It's something that's not easy to fix. He's pretty beat up, too, from all the years of playing."

The Dream likely over

Bill Harris / Toronto Sun

Injury darkens centre's future

Robert MacLeod / Toronto Globe & Mail

Stackhouse part of the Jordan Bunch?

I guess this is how all of us hoops junkies want to go out. Surrounded by your pick-up buddies.

A year after Michael Jordan said he was coming back to "teach our young guys the right way to play the game and how to hold themselves accountable," MJ traded away his most impressive young guy, Richard Hamilton, for an older, less talented version of himself. (Yes, technically it was Wes Unseld, but we all know who's pulling the strings here.)

Jerry Stackhouse, the newest Wizard, is Jordan-lite, an exact replica of the 39-year-old version of Jordan who just so happens to be a pale imitation of the real thing that dominated the NBA for a decade.

Talk about your deja vu.

"I can see myself out there as one of those Batman-and-Robin type things," Stackhouse said at a press conference Thursday. "I don't know who's who now, but I'm going to try to hold down my part."

We don't know either. Robin-and-Robin may be the better analogy. The fact that, in the end, Robin always gets his butt kicked seems to be lost on both of them.

The revelation that Jordan began to covet Stack while working out with him at Hoops gym is interesting. Last year it was Jamal Crawford, another Hoops staple, who Jordan had the jones for. And before that, it was Bobby Simmons, another Hoops phenom who Jordan fell in love with. Need a job with the Wizards?

Come with a North Carolina diploma and and a good run or two at Hoops and the job is yours. Is an Ed Cota signing just around the corner?

The truth is Jordan's rebuilding plan for the Wizards changes by the hour. Maybe MJ learned something for Jerry Krause after all.

First, the Wizards were trying to infuse the team with youth. Kwame Brown may be enough to swear anyone from ever going that route again, but the truth is Jordan's return last season sold a lot of tickets but hindered the rebuilding effort. His presence hasn't lured one top free agent to D.C., the lessons he was supposed to teach to players like Rip Hamilton and Courtney Alexander aren't worth jack squat now, and all his gritty play did last season was push the Wizards to the periphery of the lottery. Jared Jeffries is nice, but had Jordan stayed upstairs, the Wizards would have been looking at Yao Ming, Jay Williams or Mike Dunleavy. That's a big difference.

Need more proof that the Wizards are in trouble? Read the Washington Post's Tony Kornheiser and the Chicago Sun Times' Jay Mariotti today. Different angles. Same conclusion. Stack-and-Jordan isn't the answer for the Wizards.

Wizards Talked Stackhouse Through It

Steve Wyche / Washington Post

Beware the curse of the Bullets

Tony Kornheiser / Washington Post

It's quitting time for MJ

Jay Mariotti / Chicago Sun-Times

Clippers clarification

I got several e-mails early this morning from readers asking about an Orange County Register story that reported in today's editions that Clippers free agent Michael Olowokandi was actually trying to get an extension and wouldn't be a restricted free agent until next season.

Here's the quote. "Olowokandi is in the final season of his five-year, $21 million rookie contract. He is eligible for a seven-year extension, with a maximum of approximately $100 million. The NBA deadline for contract extensions is Oct. 31. If Olowokandi does not sign an extension, he would become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. He could field offers from other teams, but the Clippers would have the right to match any offer and retain his services for one season. After that, Olowokandi would become an unrestricted free agent. "

This isn't accurate. Olowokandi is a restricted free agent this season. The Clippers have tendered him the required one-year offer. As Insider first reported Thursday, Olowokandi's agent, Bill Duffy, has given the Clippers until Wednesday, Sept. 18th to work out a long-term contract. If they cannot come to terms, Olowokandi will take the one-year tender and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, according to Duffy. The OC Register report is one year behind.

Olowokandi gives Clippers deadline

Art Thompson III / Orange County Register

[Boondocks]

I'm not a Heat fan at all but it's a sad loss to the NBA seeing Zo going out like that. I actually hope he retires now and enjoys a long, pain free and healthy life.

Trades though, think the Heat would want Nazr or is he an integral part of the Hawks? He's too inconsistent don't you guys think? Maybe wait with trades untill Ratliff is a 100% for a long part of the season?

[Guest]

Peep Show

Rockets: The team is still awaiting final clearance from the China Basketball Association to sign Yao Ming. "There's nothing to report," GM Carroll Dawson told the Houston Chronicle. "Michael [Goldberg, Rockets general counse]) has shot off another letter to Mr. Xin [Lancheng, CBA commissioner]. We're waiting for a reply." . . .Guard Tito Maddox, the Rockets' second-round pick and the 38th player chosen in June's draft, signed a two-year contract Thursday. "He played with us this summer, and he was impressive," Dawson said. "He brings a defensive ability that we really like. He also has an ability to penetrate in the paint and dish the ball. He's versatile enough to play the one and the two, so he's the kind of player [coach] Rudy [Tomjanovich]) likes. His ability to slide his feet on defense is amazing, kind of like Kenny [Thomas]."

Sonics: Free agent Walt Williams was brought in for talks Thursday and is the latest in a group of players the organization is considering should Rashard Lewis decide to sign with the Mavs, the Seattle Times reported. The Sonics brought in Wizards forward Popeye Jones in August and Hornets forward Lee Nailon earlier this week. Williams, a veteran outside shooter, has also had serious discussions with the Heat.

Nuggets: Point guard Mark Jackson says he's fine with ending his career on the lowly Nuggets. "I don't mind it," Jackson told Newsday. "I understand the business of it. I'm just happy to be going on my 16th year." Jackson, who has two years and $6 million left on his contract, isn't sure where he fits on a Denver team that clearly is rebuilding. At age 37, he said he hasn't started to think about retiring. "I want to play until I stop having fun," Jackson said. "Right now, I'm having a blast."

Warriors: Coach Eric Musselman brought in Hall of Famer Rick Barry to work with several players Thursday. "I tell these guys that most of the players today have been shortchanged," Barry told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They haven't been given the kind of teaching that they deserve. If they had this fundamental foundation established when they were youngsters, it would be scary how good they could be at this point." . . . Barry was impressed with the quickness and play of point guard Rafer Altson . . .Power forward Danny Fortson skipped all three days of the Warriors voluntary workouts.

Fired up Barry hits court as guest instructor

Brad Weinstein / San Francisco Chronicle

Another New Beginning For Ex-Knick Jackson

Barbara Barker / Newsday

Williams, Sonics talk about deal

Jayda Evans / Seattle Times

Rockets agree to terms with Fresno State guard Maddox

Jonathan Feigen / Houston Chronicle