Knicks' GM Donnie Walsh was asked about the state of the NBA and the future of talented big men like Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum recently.

"I'm a little worried about Oden," Walsh admitted. "He's young and these young guys come in, but their bodies are not ready for the NBA, and they do get hurt. I think with real young players, they're not ready for the NBA. All of a sudden they're playing at our speed and our tempo against men. It seems that even if they don't get hit, they start breaking down a little bit."

Rockets' forward Ron Artest agreed on Saturday when asked if he thought the free agent Class of 2009 has been overlooked as team jostle for position in the summer of 2010.

"I guess so, if there's any truth to that story," Artest said when asked if the class was underrated. "A lot of general managers haven't come out and said, 'Hey, we're all saving room [for 2009].' At least I haven't heard that. But we'll see how right they are if they are waiting for that 2010 class. I guess we'll all find out in 2012. We'll see who made the right decisions and who didn't. I'm not really worried about it. I'm just having fun, playing basketball."

Mike Bibby is unaware of any serious trade discussions involving him leaving Atlanta and claims that the media creates a majority of rumors.

Yahoo! Sports reported over the weekend that the Hawks were involved in talks with the Blazers about a deal involving Bibby.

"What the hell is Yahoo Sports?" Bibby said in jest on Saturday night. "That's news to me Sekou [Smith, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution]. I never heard anything like that ... you and the rest of the damn media always making stuff up."

The Grizzlies claim that no trade is evident even though they have admitted having discussions with the Blazers recently.

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the deal is essentially Mike Conley Jr. for Travis Outlaw.

A team source out of Memphis claims that talks will be ongoing, but the team isn't likely to make any moves before February.

An NBA source claims that the Heat have placed forward Shawn Marion on the block as they struggle out of the gate.

Marion, who is making $17.8 million in the final year of his contract, was rumored to be a trading chip this offseason.

Jazz sixth man Andrei Kirilenko is day-to-day after leaving the team's loss to the Nets on Saturday in the first half with pain and inflammation in his right ankle.

He had X-rays taken on Saturday night, and results didn't reveal any sprains or fractures.

Kirilenko admitted that he felt discomfort in the ankle prior to Saturday's game.

Hawks' forward Josh Smith hopes to return from a 12-game layoff on Wednesday when the team takes on the Grizzlies.

Smith suffered a high left ankle sprain on Nov. 7 against the Raptors.

"I'm ready to go right now," Smith said before Saturday's game. "But if the guys that know [the Hawks' athletic training staff] think I should wait a couple more games, I have to go with it."

Atlanta was 4-0 with Smith and are roughly .500 without him.

The San Antonio Spurs announced today that they have assigned guard Blake Ahearn to the Austin Toros, the NBA Development League team owned and operated by the Spurs.

Ahearn has appeared in three games for the Spurs and averaged 2.7 points in 6.3 minutes.  He was signed by San Antonio on 11/16.

The Pacers have lost five of their last six games to fall to 6-10 on the season but aren't blaming their slide on anything in particular.

"We've just got to get better at winning, period," point guard T.J. Ford said. "I don't think it has anything to do with the (schedule)."

Indiana lost to Orlando on Saturday night thanks to a huge performance from Dwight Howard, after losing to Charlotte in overtime on Friday night.

"It's not just Dwight Howard," center Rasho Nesterovic said. "It's been a couple nights in a row. We just have to figure out the way to overcome this. It's as simple as that. You can talk about all the this and that, but you have to stick together as a team and start winning."

Golden State guard Stephen Jackson sat out the team's loss to New York on Saturday night with a sprained left wrist.

Jackson hurt the wrist on the team's five-game road trip and aggravated it during a loss to Cleveland on Friday night.

Jackson, who is averaging 21.4 points per game, was replaced by Marco Belinelli in the starting lineup.