Jerome Lewis, the agent for Luis Flores, said he expects the Nuggets to waive the guard today.

If Denver waits until Wednesday, it owes Flores $150,000, and the rest of his $620,000 contract on opening night.

Lewis said Toronto and Utah are interested in Flores.

That was the reaction from Raptors general manager Rob Babcock yesterday when asked about a report in a Utah newspaper that his team is interested in Jazz guard Keith McLeod.

"We can't get him unless he suddenly turns into a minimum-salary guy," Babcock said yesterday on the phone from Minnesota. "And regardless, I'm sure Utah wants to keep him.

"We had expressed some interest in him, sure. I'm not trying to hide anything. We spoke with his agent. But he falls directly into that category where we determined we don't have enough money left to make a serious bid."

The Toronto Raptors are the first NBA team to acknowledge interest in signing Utah Jazz restricted free agent guard Keith McLeod. But the Raptors also expressed doubt that the Jazz would allow McLeod to move to another team and would instead match an offer sheet for him.

Toronto GM Rob Babcock has said that he's had "discussions with Keith's agent," but he added, "right now all indications are is that they (Jazz) would match, although that may change later on. He's somebody that we have checked in with, and he's somebody that's on our list."
     
McLeod's agent told the Deseret Morning News by telephone that he does not make public comment on his clients' doings, and he preferred not to have his name reported.

Several newspapers on Saturday indicated that the Chicago Bulls' restricted free agent Jannero Pargo and unrestricted free agent Felipe Lopez have had talks with the Jazz, among other teams, and that former BYU star Travis Hansen, an unrestricted free agent, was quoted by the Spanish language El Correo Digital as saying that he has offers from Denver and Houston, "but I wanted to play in Utah."
     
Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor did not answer Deseret Morning News phone calls or return messages left for him on Friday or Saturday.
     
Earlier last week, O'Connor said he has been working the phones but had nothing close at the time, and no players scheduled to visit, though that could change.
     
The Jazz have also been in the running for San Antonio restricted free agent guard Devin Brown, the only free agent known so far to have visited Utah, where he was born, and talked with the Jazz. His agent has said Brown is getting close to signing an offer sheet (the Spurs would have seven days to match, if they choose), though the agent has never listed teams with whom Brown visited. The Jazz acknowledged having him in town Aug. 9.

No official offer sheet was expected to come out of this first meeting, said Utah Jazz senior vice president Kevin O'Connor, but Salt Lake-born San Antonio Spurs restricted free agent Devin Brown did visit with the Jazz Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

The 6-foot-5, 26-year-old shooting guard, whose play was limited late in the season and in the playoffs by a herniated disk in his back, was making a bit of a get-to-know-you visit to the Jazz Tuesday morning.

"We're doing a little bit of homework on some free agents, and we haven't quit," said O'Connor. "There's nothing imminent. We're having a talk. He's a restricted free agent."

Added O'Connor: "We'll discuss what our business will be (with him Tuesday). We'll just sit down and visit, show him what the Jazz are and what they're not and see where his interest is and where our interest is.

"Fact-finding," O'Connor termed it.

O'Connor had said Monday that the Jazz and other teams would likely wait until Aug. 15 to do much regarding free agents because that's the deadline for teams to take advantage of the NBA's new one-time "amnesty" rule that allows them to waive one costly player. That player's salary would still count against the team, but the amnesty rule keeps it from affecting the luxury tax, so some well-known players have been or will be made free agents.

O'Connor said he could not say if Brown's status as a Salt Lake City native made him more interested in Utah than some of the other cities that have courted him. Brown was born in Utah but grew up in San Antonio and was the leading career scorer at University of Texas at San Antonio.

In a recent story in the San Antonio Express-News, Brown's agent, Darrick Powell, said a dozen teams had shown interest, including Portland, Seattle and Cleveland. Brown said in a recent SAE-N story that he planned to visit several teams in the coming weeks.

The 2005 NBA-champion Spurs are waiting to see if Brown receives an offer sheet from another team. They have the right to match any such offer within seven days and keep the player. They gave Brown a qualifying offer of about $900,000 to retain that right to match. Brown earned $695,000 last season, and the newspaper quoted Powell as saying he will not play for $1 million now. "He's more than a $1 million player."

After the initial flurry of activity, the NBA's meat market has slowed down a bit, partly because teams are waiting for the results of the NBA's new one-time amnesty rule that allows teams to dump a big salary to avoid paying the luxury tax.

"I think that's the next step," said Utah Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor on Monday.

The deadline for use of the amnesty waiver is next Monday. Not all teams will use the opportunity.

"We're working on it," said O'Connor about possible roster changes that could involve signing free agents or making further trades, "but it's something that doesn't come as easily or as quickly as you want."

What does come quickly and easily are rumors, and O'Connor bristled at mention of one that was making the rounds Monday, that power forward Carlos Boozer and swingman Matt Harpring have been made available for trade by the Jazz.

The rumor on a relatively new Web site quoted an unnamed NBA general manager as saying this was known around the league and that Atlanta, Boston and Dallas are the most interested. "Boozer and Harpring are both names that have been mentioned to me, as far as guys they are wanting to trade," the unidentified GM told the Web site.

"That's an absolute lie. It's an absolute lie," O'Connor said Monday.

Told it was purportedly an unidentified NBA GM who said that, O'Connor said, "Well, he's a liar, and you can write that. I wish some of these people would step forward and say this is the guy. Put your name next to it.

"We're not shopping them and it's an absolute lie," O'Connor said.

Hoopsworld.com is reporting that a major five-team deal could be brewing in the NBA. Other reports have the deal being reduced to four, while some have it going as high as six.

Deals as big as these are very complicated to complete in the NBA, and can take days, weeks, or can even fall apart at the twilight hours.

It's been widely rumored that Miami is tryng to acquire both Jason Williams and Antoine Walker. The Memphis Grizzlies already have a deal reportedly in place with Utah sending Greg Ostertag back home to the Jazz for Curtis Borchardt, Kirk Snyder and Raul Lopez.

The monster deal is said to expand the Memphis/Utah deal with Eddie Jones, Rasual Butler and possibly Michael Doleac leaving the Heat to various destinations. The Heat would get back Williams, Walker and small forward James Posey. The additional teams are said to be the New Orleans Hornets and Boston Celtics, though the exact list of players being swapped is unclear. But, it is believed that Butler, Borchardt, Snyder, Lopez, Doleac and picks might be split between the Hornets and Celtics; both of whom are rebuilding through youth.