With the hype surrounding Yao Ming, Jay Williams, Dajuan Wagner and a few others, Caron Butler seems to have been a bit lost in the shuffle.  One of his NBA comparisons is Paul Pierce.  An interesting irony in the comparison is that Pierce kept tumbling on draft night until Boston finally landed him with the 10th pick.

Butler visited Memphis Wednesday for a workout.  The Grizzlies had scouted him about 15 times previously.  The Commercial Appeal's Ron Tillery says that Butler brings a combination of toughness and versatile talent.

He adds that Butler represents the athletic, high-scoring swingman missing on the Grizzlies' roster. What separates Butler from other highly touted small forwards, such as Duke's Mike Dunleavy Jr., is his powerful 6-7, 240-pound frame.

Tillery says the Grizzlies' brass have discounted Butler's past.  His high school career in Racine, Wis., was tainted by a 15-month sentence for bringing a gun and cocaine into school. Butler spent six months in an adult prison and nine months in a juvenile detention center.

Team president Jerry West says surviving the ill streets sometimes enhances maturity.  He added that, "I've always felt that kids that are able to overcome some difficulties are the ones who seem most resilient."

Memphis will work out University of Memphis (sensing a theme here?) product Dejuan Wagner today, the 6-3 freshman scoring machine will not have to travel far for his workout at Rhodes College.

Joining Wagner will be guard Predrag Savovic, a Yugoslavian native who averaged 20.3 points as a senior at Hawaii, and guard J.R. Bremer who averaged 24.6 points for St. Bonaventure.

"Good shooters. (Savovic) is dead-eye," said Grizzlies director of player personnel Tony Barone. "It should be a great workout."

With all the recent attention being on Yao Ming, Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy the Memphis Grizzlies have turned to take a look at Maryland duo Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter, Roland Tillery from GoMemphis reports.

"My college career is over. This is a whole different level," said Baxter. "This is the big league and I have to show everybody what I can do and what I'm made of.
"College is in the past. It helps (being a national champion) but you also have to prove yourself."

And prove himself Baxter has been trying to do, more than holding his own in a workout opposite Wake Forest's Darius Songaila.

"We want to see them compete," Griz director of player personnel Tony Barone said. "It's not a matter of whether they can guard each other, it's whether they are going to bang each other at the end of a workout.?

"We were very impressed with Lonny's shooting. Darius has excellent post moves."

That's resign.  Not re-sign.

Two assistant coaches for the Memphis Grizzlies have resigned.  Bob Staak and Michael Adams both resigned Wednesday.  They both were brought to Vancouver to work with Sidney Lowe two years ago when Dick Versace took over.

Ron Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Staak's resignation is particularly surprising, since he was the top assistant coach.

Tillery says the two probably resigned because none of the coaching staff have contracts beyond 2002/03, and they would be in a lame duck position the coming year.  Staak says he has a couple of opportunities, but wouldn't elaborate.

In the related piece -- well, the only relation is that both pieces are about the Grizzlies -- Jerome Obermark
reports that Jerry West has completed arrangements to buy new digs in Memphis.  It's a cozy 15,000 square foot place with five bedrooms and six bathrooms.  The asking price was  $3.9M or $4.5M, depending on whether an adjacent six acres is included.

The place is in the Southwind area.  This is a gated community around the Tournament Players Club, home of the FedEx St. Jude Classic. West joins Lorenzen Wright and Jason Williams, who also brought pricey abodes in the same area.

The Rockets thought the Grizzlies would have to accept that pick if it was conveyed to them to complete the Steve Francis trade. Instead, the Grizzlies only have to accept a pick other than the Rockets' own selection -- which they are not about to surrender -- if the pick in question is among the top 13.

"There's nothing in the rules that says we have to send it or they have to take it," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. "They can wait til next year to take our pick for sure. It's up to them. From their point of view, we've been in the lottery now (for three seasons). They might roll the dice and wait until next year."

Next season, the Rockets must send their pick or another team's lottery pick to complete the deal. The Grizzlies could choose to take this season's pick if they lose their own pick to Detroit. But that only would happen in the long-shot chance they fall out of the top five.

But the Rockets' second first-round pick has become more valuable with every addition to the draft mix -- Duke's Mike Dunleavy is the latest -- and the rise in stature of some of the European players, especially 19-year-old forward Nickoloz Tskitishvili. With the improved draft, the second pick might help the Rockets move up or add a pick to make up for the choice they would lose next season.

SCOTT DODD AND PETER SMOLOWITZ of the Charlotte Observer report: Everyone's heard about the Michael Jordan sale that fell through. But that's not the only blockbuster deal that could have kept the Hornets in Charlotte.

In the past six years, at least a half-dozen businessmen have tried to buy the team, from NASCAR big wheel Bruton Smith to Robert Johnson, the nation's first black billionaire.

The deals all failed, for reasons that ranged from the asking price to the terms of the sale -- and now the Hornets appear headed to New Orleans. Today the NBA Board of Governors is expected to give final approval.

One deal that came close might have been the most unusual: Last spring, owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge were in talks to swap franchises with Vancouver Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley.

Shinn and Wooldridge would have owned Heisley's team in Memphis, Tenn. And Heisley and a group of Charlotte investors would have kept the Hornets here. One of the local businessmen involved said it came so close he "thought we were all going to shake hands."

Heisley, the Grizzlies' owner, said he talked for a "couple days" with Shinn and Wooldridge last year but decided the Charlotte deal was too complicated.

Heisley would have owned the Hornets along with a group of local investors -- the same arrangement he eventually reached to move his team to Memphis.

"I didn't feel I could make commitments (to Memphis) and then move someplace else," Heisley said. "It had nothing to do with the people in Charlotte, it had nothing to do with the owners."

This week, the Shelby County commissioners approved a financing plan for a $250 million arena for the Grizzlies, ending speculation that the team might still move to Charlotte if Memphis didn't build it a new home.

NBA officials have said they'd like to put a new team in Charlotte if an arena deal is reached.

The (AP) reports: A bond issue to finance a $250 million arena for the Memphis Grizzlies got final approval Wednesday.

The Shelby County Commission voted 11-2 in favor of the bond issue, which the Memphis City Council approved in April.

The Memphis & Shelby County Sports Authority will issue revenue bonds to finance construction of the arena near the Beale Street entertainment district.

Work on the arena is expected to begin this month.

Taxpayers will pay for the arena primarily through sales tax rebates, hotel-motel taxes and surcharges on rental cars.

The arena is expected to open for the NBA's 2004-05 season. It also will be used for concerts and other entertainment.

The Grizzlies moved from Vancouver to Memphis before this season and played at the Pyramid arena.

The city and county promised the NBA they would build a new arena. The league wanted the bond issue approved by May 15.