The Pistons have made signing Rasheed Wallace their number one priority.  

This move comes as no surprise, as signing Wallace would leave the Pistons with virtually the same team that dominated the Lakers in the 2004 championship series, sans Okur.

Okur has expressed repeatedly that he would like to remain a Piston, however if Wallace stays, Okur would likely sign for a team that has extra cap room and would give him more playing time.  Phoenix and Utah being the frontrunners.

Picking right next to each other, the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics are keeping an eye on the competition.

Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz vice president of basketball operations, is set to make the 14th, 16th and 21st picks in the first round of the Draft.

Danny Ainge, the Celtics executive director of basketball operations, has the 15th, 24th and 25th picks.

The two teams have interviewed the same batch of prospects and have similar needs to fill.

Both are looking to package picks and move up for a higher selection.

Recent reports indicate that Sasha Pavlovic will be traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  He will a much needed outside threat, replacing former Bruin, Jason Kapono.

Phil Miller of the Tribune reports that the Jazz don't want to lose Sasha Pavlovic to the Charlotte Bobcats in Tuesday's Expansion Draft, but depth at that position may soften the blow.

Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations, Kevin O'Connor explained that Pavlovic was originally drafted by Utah because of the team's need for a shooter. With the addition of Raja Bell and Gordan Giricek and incumbant forwards Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko, Pavlovic may be expendable.

The Jazz would like to keep the 20-year-old forward, who started 14 games and averaged 4.8 points during his rookie season. But O'Connor hinted -- and another NBA source confirmed Saturday -- that no deal with the Charlotte Bobcats is in place, or was even proposed before the Jazz turned in their expansion-draft list.
   
"We're in conversations with them," O'Connor said, and not necessarily just about Pavlovic. Though he's irritated that the supposedly secret expansion lists became public almost immediately, "there's some people on that list that certainly intrigue us," he said.

By not informing the Los Angeles Lakers that he was exercising the option on his contract, Karl Malone will become a free agent.

The move was expected because it gives Malone greater contractual flexibility if he decides to play next year and return to the Lakers.

But retirement may be Malone's ultimate choice.  

Malone will be 41 this summer and had his first injury-plagued season of his NBA career.

"The first priority for him is we're going to meet with doctors this week and have MRIs done on both legs, specifically his right leg," Malone's agent Dwight Manley said. "He has made it clear he won't play if he's not 100 percent healthy.

Bobbye Sloan, wife of Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, passed away today at the age of 61. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January. She had also fought off breast cancer in the past.

Jerry and Bobbye were married for 41 years, and Sloan considered leaving coaching to be with her; but she urged him to continue coaching.

"Bobbye Sloan was diagnosed with breast cancer after the Jazz's 1997 NBA Finals loss to the Chicago Bulls. She fought and won a very public battle with the disease, but had been ill before the announcement in January with flu-like symptoms."

GM?s from around the league will pay extra attention to the NBA Finals because of the many free-agents-to-be, or potential ones, who will be on the court.

Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Derek Fisher can all opt out of their contracts after the season.  Detroit Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace will be a free agent, and then there?s the interesting prospect of big man Mehmet Okur who is a restricted free agent contract is up.

Okur may not be in the Pistons? future plans, but he may be in the Nuggets?.

Kiki Vandeweghe has about $20 million available and about $7 million to $8 million of that likely will go to re-sign Marcus Camby.

Denver is almost certainly out of the Kobe Bryant running.  But the Nuggets may offer contracts of $5 million to $8 million to guards like Manu Ginobli, Steve Nash, Quentin Richardson, Jamal Crawford or Stephen Jackson.  Or possibly the cash can be saved to pursue Tracy McGrady next year.
So in any event, there seems to be salary cap room to nab Okur.

Phoenix, Utah and New York are also interested in the 6-11, 25-year-old Okur, who can play both power forward and center and is a top offensive rebounder.

The Jazz will work out three more big men today, including a pair of Brazilian forwards ? 6'10" Anderson Varejao and 6'10" Marcus Vieira de Souza ? as well as Randy Orr, a 6'11" center from Georgia Perimeter College.

Varejao is a veteran of the Spanish League who has entered but dropped out of the last two NBA drafts after failing to secure a promise from any team that he would be a first-round choice.  He cannot pull out this year and may finally make it into the first round by some estimates.        

Other big men who have worked out for the Jazz include BYU product Rafael Araujo (another Brazillian), and University of Colorado center David Harrison.

The Jazz will pick 14, 16 and 21 at Draft 2004.

The NBA announced that the Utah Jazz will play a preseason game on October 8, 2004, against CSKA.  This is the former team of the team?s star forward and Russian native Andrei Kirilenko.

The game will be played at the Universal Sport Hall CSKA in Moscow and will be the first time an NBA team has played in Russia since 1988.  From July 20-31, 1988, the Atlanta Hawks became the first NBA team to play in the former Soviet Union when they toured Russia, Lithuania and the Republic of Georgia.

?I am very pleased and honored to be returning back to my native country with my NBA team, the Utah Jazz,? said Kirilenko.

Since it?s creation in 1924, CSKA has been one of the most successful clubs in Europe.

The game in Russia complements a pre-season international schedule that includes the first-ever NBA games played in China.  The Houston Rockets and Yao Ming play in Shanghai on October 14 and the Sacramento Kings play in Beijing on October 17.