Playing on a subpar roster in Atlanta, Antoine Walker might be on his way for a season in which he averages 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game. If Walker brings the kind of leadership the Hawks are hoping for, he could be hard for the Hawks to part with.

General manager Billy Knight has called Walker the kind of player he would like to have going forward, but it won't be easy.

Walker makes $14.625 million this season in the final year of his contract and would almost certainly have to take a pay cut to remain.  It is highly unlikely that any other club would give him a contract worth as much as the Boston Celtics did several years ago.

One alternative would be to deal Walker during the season or after, possibly in a sign-and-trade deal. There is now a strong chance that both the Hawks and Walker would want to continue their relationship.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, through a report published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is reporting that Sonic Danny Fortson has filed a defamation lawsuit against Phoenix Suns chairman and CEO Jerry Colangelo, the New York Post and its columnist Peter Vecsey.

The suit is related to comments made by Colangelo last season towards Fortson, labelling the strong forward a "thug," as well as saying "I want him out of here."  Colangelo's characterization was televised and published in many newspapers as well as the statement.  The comments stemmed from a hard foul then-Maverick Fortson had committed against then-Sun Zarko Cabarkapa, leaving the rookie with a broken wrist.  Fortson was ejected and suspended for three games over the incident.

Vecsey is included for a Nov. 30 column he wrote in which he criticized the league's response to Fortson's foul. He called Fortson a "vacant lot," said he engaged in "attempted murder" and called him a "gangsta or a wanksta."

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Fortson seeks damages of more than $15,000 as well as the expense involved in the suit and "other relief the court may deem appropriate."

Dallas Mavericks guard Avery Johnson will announce his retirement tomorrow to become the team's top assistant coach, he told ESPN's Marc Stein. In what was possibly the league's worst kept secret, Johnson has been all but named the Mavericks' successor to head coach Don Nelson and intended on spending the season on the injured list as a player to focus on coaching.

The NBA offices in New York, however, strongly encouraged Dallas to come clean and remove Johnson from the active roster. Johnson said he had no intention of playing this season unless an emergency demanded it.

In a related move, the Mavericks' President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson will relinquish his duties as the team's top assistant bench coach to focus exclusively on his role as the head of the team's basketball operations staff.

The Mavericks, with the league's largest staff of assistant coaches with 11, will keep Johnson, Del Harris, Charlie Parker and Larry Riley on the bench with Don Nelson this season.

Rolando Blackman, Paul Mokeski, Brad Davis, Greg Dreiling, Hubert Davis, Gary Boren and Don Kalkstein remain on board in player development roles.

Dallas Mavericks center Evan Eschmeyer, who missed all of last season after knee surgery, retired Saturday.

"I am sad it has come to an end, but I know I have given every ounce of effort every second I have played," he said. "My only wish is that I would have been a little healthier. Sometimes the mind is willing but the body is not able."

Eschmeyer, 29, played 153 games during his four-year NBA career with New Jersey, Dallas and Golden State. He averaged 2.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14 minutes per game.

Moving from behind the scenes to in front of the bench, Adrian Dantley has plenty to teach the talented but inexperienced Denver Nuggets.

"It's just a matter of practicing, knowing your opponents and shooting the basketball," Dantley said. "You've got to shoot the basketball and you've got to be able to dribble the ball a little to be successful. That's what I'm trying to teach them."

That Dantley is teaching at all may come as a surprise to some.

In his 15 seasons with seven teams, Dantley developed a reputation as being a selfish player and somewhat aloof, someone more concerned with his numbers than helping his team win. A bitter holdout in 1984-85 didn't help his image, nor did clashes with Utah coach and general manager Frank Layden; Dantley's still waiting to have his number retired by the Jazz.

When he first arrived in Denver last season, most of his work came in side sessions with the Nuggets' younger players. This year, Dantley has moved to the bench as an assistant to coach Jeff Bzdelik.

Though his role has changed, Dantley's main task remains the same: making Denver's post players more effective. He's done it by teaching the techniques he all but perfected.

Footwork was a key reason Dantley was able to get off his shot against much taller players, and he's been working with Denver's players on being able to pivot with both feet instead of just one. Dantley also is teaching them to use their backsides to "seal" defenders, something he perfected over the years with his sturdy rump.

And perhaps most importantly, Dantley is widening the young Nuggets' arsenal of shots, showing them the up-and-unders, fadeaways and flip shots he used so effectively.

"A lot of these guys today just want to shoot jump shots or get close to the basket and shoot a good percentage," Dantley said. "They'd rather have a dunk than have three or four nice layups or 5-foot jumpers, 10-foot jumpers -- the mid-range jump shot. That's what's kind of lost today with the big men. I just try to work on things they might get in a game."

It seems to be working. Under Dantley's tutelage, Denver's frontliners have made dramatic improvements.

Power forward Nene has learned to harness his athletic exuberance inside the lane, expanding his repertoire to include jumpers, flip shots and jump hooks instead of just bulling his way to the basket.

Nikoloz Tskitishvili, who at times has seemed lost in the NBA, has started showing signs he might not be a total bust as the fifth pick in the 2002 draft.

Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks desperately wanted to acquire center Erick Dampier.

They offered him the $5 million mid-level exception.  That was respectfully declined.

They attempted to negotiate a sign-and-trade deal with the Golden State Warriors, but Isiah Thomas could not come up with the players that would satisfy Chris Mullin.

So instead Erick Dampier was sent to the Dallas Mavericks in a sign-and-trade deal.

"We couldn't offer the dollars that Dallas could at that time," Wilkens said. "And we couldn't get Golden State to do a sign-and-trade with us. I thought that he had the experience and that he could be a real good addition to our team."

Scrappy forward Eduardo Najera is finding himself in a similar role to which he found himself over four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.

Najera's new team, the Golden State Warriors, have Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Clifford Robinson playing ahead of him at the two forward positions, his natural spot.  At shooting guard, there is even more of a logjam, with Jason Richardson, Mike Pietrus and Calbert Cheaney.

His minutes will be sparse, but knowing the gritty Najera, he will capitalize on those minutes as much as he can.  The Warriors hope he can cover the role that Brian Cardinal did so masterfully last season.

Veteran center Evan Eschmeyer, re-acquired in an off-season trade with Golden State, likely will decide in the next week if his injured left knee will force him to retire, according to his agent. Eschmeyer, out all of last season, has little cartilage in the knee.

"He's been rehabbing for two years, " agent Mark Bartelstein said Wednesday. "He still wants to play. It's a matter of whether his body is able to do it."

If Eschmeyer does retire, the roster is reduced to 16 players. The team can only carry 15 into the regular season. If the Mavs can reach a buyout agreement with Tariq Abdul-Wahad, reserve point guard Dan Dickau could make the team.

The Mavericks announced the signing of forward Jason Sasser on Wednesday.

Sasser (6-7, 225), is a former Texas Tech standout and second-round draft pick Sacramento Kings in 1996. This will be Sasser's second stint with the Mavericks ? he signed a 10-day contract with the team in 1997.

Sasser has played on three NBA teams. Most recently, he played professionally in Germany in 2003-04, where he averaged 16.7 and 5.4 rebounds in FIBA Europe Cup games.

With Marquis Daniels being more versatile than Jerry Stackhouse and Josh Howard playing better than anyone else on the team, the former All-Star Stackhouse has stated that he would be willing to take a role as the Maverick sixth man.

Stackhouse averaged just 14 points per game last season, in an injury plagued year.  His career average is 21 points per game over nine seasons with the Sixers, Pistons and Wizards.