According to Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune, Portland  has been discussing trades with a number of different clubs.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim will the center of any deal. One of the offers has been to Toronto for Vince Carter,"but so far, they have rejected our proposals," Portland GM John Nash says. "They are not as interested as we are at this point.?

Another potential deal, Abdur-Rahim to New Jersey for Jason Kidd, is on hold until Kidd returns to the Nets? lineup. The Nets like Abdur-Rahim and would be interested in keeping him instead of letting him go after his contract expires at the end of the season, says Chief Executive Officer Rod Thorn.

The Blazers, like other potential suitors, want to see how Kidd responds to offseason knee surgery before making a deal. The Nets will consider a trade, though "I think we will probably keep (Kidd)," Thorn says. But if they continue to lose, they would have more reason to trade the veteran point guard.

If the Blazers would be willing to part with rookie point guard Sebastian Telfair, they could almost surely make the deal. But, given Portland?s stance on Stoudamire, whose contract ends after this season, "wait and see," Nash says.

Jason Kidd is expected to return to the Nets lineup sometime between December 10-14.  

"We should not expect Jason to save us," said Richard Jefferson, who averaged 22.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and shot .465 (33-of-71) on the Nets' 0-4 western trip that ran their losing streak to nine games and left them at 2-11, tying the worst 13-game start in franchise history.

"He's coming back from knee surgery and you don't want to put too much pressure on one guy," Jefferson continued. "We need to save ourselves. Jason should come in and contribute until he gets his legs underneath him.

Jefferson and his mate shouldn't plan on playing with one of the league's hottest commodities for very long, as Kidd's name has had constant placement on NBA rumor mill's since the summer.

Fred Kerber of the New York Post writes, 'If Kidd appears fine after his left-knee surgery, operators will be standing by waiting to take calls bidding for his services.'

Nets coach, Lawrence Frank has used rookie Nenad Krstic with greater frequency of late, leading to speculation that Aaron Williams is on the trading block.

A league source said the Nets are trying to trade Williams, who played two minutes in the past two games, including none at Portland.

According to Fred Kerber of the New York Post Alonzo Mourning is still putting his health first despite the Nets dismal 2-11 start.

Mourning, who played 23 minutes in yesterday's 81-73 loss, said his wind could be better and cautioned that longer minutes could hurt him.

"I'm sure the world wants to see me play 35 minutes 40 minutes, but I didn't come back here for [that]," Mourning said. "That wasn't my intention, to carry a ball club. I don't think health-wise, long-term, that's beneficial."

Following a team meeting on Tuesday, Alonzo Mourning asked Bruce Ratner why he decided to purchase the New Jersey Nets.

"He said, 'To move it to Brooklyn.' I didn't hear 'To win,' or 'To win a championship,' " Mourning said. "I just shook my head . . . I want to win. He said Brooklyn deserves a franchise, they had one previously, and he wants to move the team to Brooklyn. He feels like it would be great for the city, and they'll give the support that the franchise needs."

In defense of Ratner, a sports franchise returning to Brooklyn would mean a lot to that community.  They lost the Brooklyn Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season.  The Nets have had a difficult time filling an outdated arena in New Jersey, even with a team that was the class of the Eastern Conference.

Mourning, speaking heavily in the third person, continuted to reiterate his desire to play elsewhere.

"I've got to do what's best for Alonzo Mourning," he said, noting also that he has been asked not to make negative comments about the organization. "The truth is confrontational. Yeah, they have [asked]. But this is Alonzo Mourning . . . and if you're going to ask me not to say some things evidently there's something you're trying to hide."

Nets guard Ron Mercer had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Monday and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.

The surgery, to remove loose particles, was performed by Dr. Michael Kelly in New York.

Mercer averaged 9.3 points in three games as the starting shooting guard.

Jason Kidd, still recovering from an injured left knee, is feeling good about the prospect about suiting up as early as the middle of next month.  Kidd?s return will not come soon enough as Nets are already battered up.  Center Alonzo Mourning is suffering from torn tendons in his right pinkie finger and Mr. Kidd?s backup, Zoran Planinic, has an injured right knee.

"A rough date would be somewhere hopefully in December," said Kidd, who will step up his rehab this week to five days from four. "But you never know. As a team, we are trying to push the knee and see how the knee responds."

Planinic is putting up career highs, averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds.  Without even knowing it, Mr. Planinic injured his right knee in a recent game.  "He didn't realize it during the game, but then late [Saturday] night he felt discomfort and some swelling," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said.  

Coach Lawrence Frank had five simple words to describe the Nets situation, "We're banged up right now.?

If all goes well for Ron Mercer tomorrow the Nets forward is expected to be out for only one month.  If doctors find anything when they open up his knee tomorrow he could be out much longer, but the signs after rest so far seem positive.

"Going just by the pain in my knee right now, we're hoping it's just a simple cleaning," Mercer said. "My knee feels good because I haven't played on it.

"It's not hurting the way it was a couple days ago. So hopefully that will be a good."

"What I'm hoping, basically, is that they go in, clean it out and then rehab from there," said Mercer.

"It's frustrating but for something like this, I'd rather have it happen now. Hopefully it's not that bad and I can continue to play this year. It's good we're taking care of it now rather than in the middle or the end."

This coming Monday, Ron Mercer will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery, which is expected to knock him out for at least one month.

"We have no timetable for his return because they don't know exactly [what is wrong]," explained Nets GM Ed Stefanski. "When they go in, they'll find out what it is and obviously do the procedure. But they don't know until they go in and scope it.

"They'll go in and if they see it's nothing, it may be a month or so ? but if there's something there, they'll address it there. But they don't know. That's why we got a second opinion," Stefanski said.

After the Golden State Warriors signed Jason Richardson and Troy Murphy to extensions last week, the cap space that many expected to become available in this coming off-season quickly disappeared.

Clifford Robinson's $5.3 million contract and Dale Davis' $10.1 million deal expire at season's end. That $15.4 million coming off the books was the reason the Warriors were going to able to get far enough under the cap to pursue a star free agent next summer.

That cap space is now unavailable but there are a host of teams that would trade quality talent for that mobility, as the Atlanta Hawks did last season with Rasheed Wallace.

Boston's Paul Pierce and New Orleans' Baron Davis are two players who might be available.

The most intriguing is Jason Kidd who grew up just a few minutes away from the Oakland Colisium.  He even played most of his high school and college games in that arena.  Kidd has an albatross of a contract and has made it clear that he would like to be moved after he returns from injury.