Mike Wise of the New York Times takes a look at different "Best and Worst" catagories from the off-season.

Wise does mention (again) the rumored Gary Payton-to-Minnesota rumor that would send Terrell Brandon, Wally Szczerbiak and Rasho Nesterovic to Seattle. Is he merely musing or does he know something the rest of us don't?

Wise's pick for "Player Most Likely to be Traded by February"? Rasheed Wallace.

when training camp begins Tuesday, Cheeks' goal will be to persuade his talented team to become an efficiently functioning group.
"We're positioning ourselves to be a team," he said. "That's what we're doing. We're positioning ourselves to . . . be . . . a . . . team. It doesn't matter if we have role players. All guys can play at some level when they get to this point. And we have guys who can play.

With the Knicks possessing a surplus of point guards, Rick Brunson declined the club's invitation to training camp and instead is on the verge of signing a one-year contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.

"I love the Knicks and New York but I think I'll now have an opportunity for more playing time," Brunson said yesterday. "That's all any player wants."

According to the AP, the Portland Trail Blazers signed free agent center Chris Dudley to a one-year contract Friday.

Dudley, a 14-year veteran who spent four seasons with the Blazers, from 1993-97, played for Phoenix last season. He averaged 1.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 53 games. He started 33 games.

The 6-foot-11 player was traded to New Jersey in July as part of a trade that sent Jason Kidd from the Suns to the Nets for Stephon Marbury. But the Nets didn't re-sign Dudley.

Terms for Dudley's one-year deal were not announced.

The Blazers' starting center, Arvydas Sabonis, remains unsigned. The 7-foot-3 Lithuanian has not said whether he will retire or come back for one more season. Sabonis, who turns 37 in December, made more than $11 million last year, and the Blazers are trying to bring him back, but reportedly at a smaller salary.

If Portland Trailblazers guard Rod Strickland wants to play in the NBA this season, he sure is going the wrong way about it.  Still unsigned with any team only two weeks away from training camp, Strickland was charged with second-degree assault and a warrant was issued for his arrest after a young woman filed a criminal complaint Tuesday.  The woman claims that Strickland punched her, knocking her unconscious, when she asked him to stop kicking her friend during a fracas last week outside a Maryland restaurant.  Strickland's attourney denied the attack.

"When that fight was over, one of the unknown suspects punched [Kristine Murphy, the young woman] in the face, causing a 1-inch cut on her chin," according to the report. John P. Valente, an attorney representing Murphy, said his client needed stitches to close the wound and was diagnosed at Prince George's Hospital Center as having a concussion.  In a District Court complaint Murphy wrote that one of her coworkers was being kicked "and I don't remember anything else. All of the witnesses . . . said that Rod Strickland was the one that punched me."

Reuters is reporting that Portland Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis could be heading home to his native Lithuania for this year's European basketball season.  Sabonis, a free agent after the last NBA season, has been put on the roster of Lithuania's champion squad Kaunas Zalgiris for the Euroleague season, Ginas Rutkauskas, Zalgiris' general manager, told Reuters by phone from Spain.

Rutkauskas said Sabonis, barring any new offers from Portland, would be playing in the Euroleague season.