After a relatively quiet offseason, the Rockets started training camp Tuesday with the attention-grabbing clap of a pair of major roster moves.

The Rockets sent veteran forward Glen Rice and two draft picks -- next season's first-round pick and a pick acquired from Chicago -- to Utah to pick up center John Amaechi and a chunk of spending money. They then immediately used the extra cash to sign free-agent shooter-for-hire Jim Jackson to a three-year contract worth, according to sources familiar with the deal, $7.3 million.

Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said the deals were made to free the Rockets from the luxury tax hit they expected without hurting themselves and even potentially strengthening the roster at small forward.

"It's just so much easier to live under the cap," Dawson said. "If you can't do that, you try to live under the luxury tax (because of) the restrictions. This enabled us to get under the luxury tax and enabled us to get Jim Jackson."

The Rockets sent Rice, in the final season of a contract that uses $9.6 million of cap space, to Utah along with the draft choice next season for Amaechi and a second-round pick. The trade moved them from $59.5 million in guaranteed contracts to $53 million, $2 million less than the figure expected to trigger the luxury tax.

Having moved from that threat, they were free to sign Jackson, who had long been considered the top free agent still on the market.

The trade with the Jazz also gave the Rockets a $7 million trade exception, the difference between Rice's and Amaechi's contracts, potentially allowing them to trade for a player that makes as much as $7 million more than a player dealt in any trade in the next 12 months.  

Though such a deal would return the Rockets to a luxury tax hit, the trade exception is considered valuable for future trades and is especially useful when acquired after the summer free-agency period because it could potentially be used in a sign-and-trade free-agent deal next summer.

"It loosens us up so if something else comes up, we're able to look at it," Dawson said. "A lot of people were in our situation as far as the luxury tax goes. Right now, we're out of it, so that's a big relief. We're one of the people that can do some things if the right thing comes up."

The Jazz are expected to approach Rice about a buyout of his contract. Rice would not discuss the deal or his plans.

"We're going to sit down with him and his agent and go from there," Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said.

Utah Jazz Sr. Vice President of Basketball Operations, Kevin O?Connor announced today that the team has agreed to terms for a two-year contract with Raja Bell. Pending the outcome of a physical, the team will sign the guard to a contract early next week. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

The 6-5 guard has earned 32 starts in 75 games last season for the Dallas Mavericks and averaged 3.1 points in 15.6 minutes. In his three year NBA career, Bell has seen action in 154 games and has averaged 3.2 points and 1.7 assists in 13.6 minutes per game.

Who says Jason Terry isn't a point guard? Hawks coach Terry Stotts called him "one of the best point guards in the East" at a news conference Thursday announcing that the team matched the three-year, $22.5 million offer sheet Terry signed with the Utah Jazz.

And shortly after he was signed and sealed, Terry was delivering assists left and right.

After expressing his excitement about staying in Atlanta --- "This is the only place I wanted to be," he said --- and shaking hands with the Hawks' new ownership group, which was in attendance, Terry said he is aiding general manager Billy Knight in his free agent pursuits.

"I've already been on the phone, talking to whatever free agents we have left, namely [San Antonio Spurs forward] Stephen Jackson," Terry said, flashing a grin. "[I'm] trying to coerce him to come on and join us. I told him, 'There is a spot open for you in that backcourt. You'll fit in real well with us . . .and help us win.' "

Terry, approaching his fifth season in the league, will earn about $8 million this season, including a $4 million signing bonus. With Terry in place, the Hawks' payroll will be about $51 million for just 10 players. The team still needs starters at small forward and shooting guard.

Raja Bell said Thursday that he plans to sign early next week with Atlanta, Utah or San Antonio.

Bell, a free agent who was a defensive specialist at shooting guard and small forward for the Mavericks last season, said the Mavs offered him a two-year contract at the league minimum early in the off-season, which he rejected. "After that," Bell said, "I never received another offer from them."

Utah has a spot for Bell because Atlanta decided Thursday to match the Jazz's three-year, $22.5 million offer sheet to guard Jason Terry. But Bell said the Spurs and Hawks are also in the picture for his services.

"I would have loved to have been back with the Mavericks," Bell said. "I waited all summer for them, but I guess we just saw things different."

The Mavericks already have 15 players, the NBA maximum, under contract. One of those contracts, for rookie Jon Stefansson, is not guaranteed, but he is expected to make the team.

The Utah Jazz have gone to the Mailman for the past 18 seasons.

Now, they will go Postell. At least for training camp.

Swingman Lavor Postell, who played 61 games over the past couple of seasons for the New York Knicks, is the most NBA-experienced of the six free agents newly invited to the Jazz's training camp, which begins Tuesday afternoon with media day.

Utah has 19 players on its training-camp roster ? 11 under guaranteed contract, with second-round draftee Mo Williams of Alabama expected to be signed soon ? and could add Dallas shooting guard Raja Bell, an unrestricted free agent, in the next few days.

Bell has said he will sign with Utah, but the Jazz waited on the decision of the Atlanta Hawks as to whether Atlanta would match Utah's Sept. 11 offer sheet to restricted-free-agent guard Jason Terry.

The Hawks finally announced late Thursday afternoon that they had matched the three-year, $22.5 million offer to Terry, leaving Utah to negotiate now with the 6-foot-5 Bell, more a defender than a scorer in his three NBA seasons with Dallas and Philadelphia.

Most members of Jazz management is in Hawaii participating in mandatory Larry H. Miller Group seminars, and they won't return to Utah until Saturday. That means the Bell deal might not get done for a couple of days yet, a Jazz source said.

Jazz player personnel director Walt Perrin, entering his third season with Utah, said he considers himself No. 4 in the list of four candidates for the general manager's job with the new Charlotte Bobcats franchise. He expects to soon have an interview for the position and is friends with the other three known candidates plus Charlotte executive vice president Ed Tapscott.

Charlotte recently received permission from Utah VP for basketball operations Kevin O'Connor to formally speak with Perrin.

Perrin said he thinks Bernie Bickerstaff, the former coach who has been operating the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA, has the inside track for the position because he's already on-staff. "I have no idea," Perrin said about his own chances. "It's a four-horse race, and I think I'm No. 4."

Others up for the position are Boston GM Chris Wallace, who interviewed Tuesday; and former Orlando player personnel director Gary Brokaw.

So you're an NBA GM seeking to add one final piece to your roster for the 2003-04 season? Maybe an athletic guy who can run the floor, shoot the three and play more than one position? How about a guy with playoff experience? That would be nice.

So you start perusing the list of available free agents, only to find the usual assortment of journeymen, castoffs and over-the-hill types. Then, suddenly, one name jumps out at you: Stephen Jackson. Stephen Jackson?

You mean the the 6-foot-8 swingman who started for last year's NBA champion Spurs? The guy who averaged 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds during the playoffs? The guy who poured in 17 points in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, helping the Spurs clinch the title?

After last season Jackson had a chance to re-sign with the Spurs. Although Popovich wasn't thrilled with Jackson's penchant for turnovers and uneven play, he was willing to reward him for his contributions. The Spurs even offered Jackson, who made $700,000 a year ago, a three-year deal worth around $10 million, according to sources.

What happened?

Call it bad planning. Or bad timing. Or maybe a little of both.

Don't look now, but the Utah Jazz might be the first team in NBA history with a backcourt made up of two players from Florida International University.
   
The Jazz plan to sign veteran shooting guard Raja Bell to a two-year contract before the start of training camp next week, The Salt Lake Tribune learned Monday.
   
Just as Jazz point guard Carlos Arroyo did, Bell played collegiately at Florida International before reaching the NBA. He spent part of the 2000-01 season and the entire 2001-02 season with the Philadelphia 76ers.
   
Bell played last season in Dallas, where he averaged 5.7 points in 15.6 minutes for the Mavericks. He made 46.2 percent on his three-point shots with the Mavs and helped them reach the Western Conference finals.
   
A native of the Virgin Islands who turned 27 last Friday, Bell played extremely well in Dallas' second-round series against Sacramento. In seven games, he averaged 7.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 23.6 minutes.
   
Bell is an unrestricted free agent.
   
He became expendable to Dallas over the summer, when the Mavericks used their first-round draft pick on Wake Forest guard Josh Howard and acquired swing-types Chris Mills and Jiri Welsch in a trade with Golden State. The Mavs also netted forward Antawn Jamison in the roster-shaking deal.
   
The only way Bell won't sign with the Jazz is if he unexpectedly gets a better offer from another NBA team in the next couple of days or if Atlanta does not match Utah's on-the-table offer sheet to restricted free agent Jason Terry by the end of this week. But the Hawks have announced they plan to match.

The Blazers made two additions to their 2003-2004 training camp roster today with the announcement that forwards Gerald Honeycutt and Scott Padgett have signed non-guaranteed contracts. The moves give the Blazers 20 players on the roster entering training camp.

Honeycutt, a 29-year-old who played collegiately at Tulane, played in 44 games last season with Grand Rapids of the Continental Basketball league and led the Hoops in scoring with an average of 22.6 points per game. He was also third on the team in rebounding with 7.6 per game.

The 27-year-old Padgett appeared in 82 games with the Utah Jazz last season, averaging 5.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in 16.1 minutes of playing time. Padgett was a 1999 first round pick of Utah's and has played all four years of his NBA career with the Jazz and has a career point of average of 4.9 while an averaging 3.0 rebounds.

The Jazz's bid to sign restricted free agent Jason Terry has likely ended, thanks to AOL Time Warner's decision to sell the struggling Atlanta Hawks to a deep-pocketed group headed by Boston businessman Steve Belkin.
   
Last week, Terry signed a three-year, $22.5 million offer sheet with Utah that also included $1.5 million in possible bonuses.
   
The Jazz hoped the summerlong questions surrounding ownership in Atlanta might prevent the Hawks from matching their offer to the 25-year-old Terry.
   
Instead, Belkin's group stepped in last weekend and purchased the Hawks, the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and the operating rights to Phillips Arena. General manager Billy Knight quickly announced the team will match Utah's offer to Terry.
   
Jazz vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor agrees that the new stability in Atlanta will keep Terry from joining the Jazz. After all, the new owners can hardly afford the credibility hit they would take by letting a young star simply walk away.
   
"I thought we were in decent shape before the sale," O'Connor said. "But I don't think we have a chance now."