Erick Dampier met with Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo and is expected to make a decision on a contract offer shortly. He sat and watched the second practice of the day with team officials but was not available to the media.

According to NBA sources, the Raptors and Houston Rockets have the best chance to land Dampier.

Magnum Rolle has signed a two-year NBA contract with the Indiana Pacers.

The second round pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, Rolle followed a productive summer league with impressive play in the Pacer?s preseason workouts.

Originally drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 51st overall pick, Rolle was traded to Indiana on draft night.

The Minnesota Timberwolves waived free agent forward DerMarr Johnson on Thursday.

The team traveled overseas for their NBA Europe Live series on Thursday.

Johnson had to sit out the first three days of the Timberwolves' five-day training camp at Minnesota State Mankato because of slow-arriving paperwork from the NBA office and the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons, a pro team in China that owns his rights.

The Knicks have already paid half of Eddy Curry's 2010-11 salary, a fact that could provide a team acquiring him significant savings and greatly boost his contract's trade value.

The Knicks are certain to offer Curry in a bid to land Carmelo Anthony at any time between now and the NBA's trade deadline.

If traded today, Curry would be owed a little over $7 million by the team acquiring him, after adding in a trade kicker.

If Curry was traded just before the February deadline, the unpaid compensation on his contract would decline to about $2.4 million and his trade kicker would decline to about $600,000.

The Toronto Raptors announced Thursday they have exercised the third year team option on the Rookie Scale Contract of guard-forward DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan is now guaranteed through the 2011-12 season. In accordance with the league?s collective bargaining agreement, the Raptors had until October 31 to exercise their option on DeRozan. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

DeRozan, 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, was the ninth overall pick by Toronto in the 2009 NBA Draft out of the University of Southern California.

The Knicks have reportedly found a pick they can use to trade for Carmelo Anthony.  

A source says the team has lined up a trade to acquire a 2011 first-round pick that can be sent to the Nuggets in a trade for Anthony.

New York would presumably only make the trade for the pick if and when a deal with Denver is ready to move forward.

A Knicks official said Isiah Thomas has assured James Dolan that Carmelo Anthony will sign with the Knicks if he becomes a free agent next summer.

"Isiah told Jim that before Carmelo's wedding and before all the talk about him coming to New York," the official said.

The Mavericks currently don't have any plans to discuss an extension with Caron Butler, according to general manager Donnie Nelson.

Butler is in the final season of his current contract, which could make him a contender to be traded.

I'm just focused on the team goals," Butler said Wednesday. "I know the more successful we are, the more successful everybody will be individually. I'm just focused on winning and striving for a title.

"That's the only focus of mine."

Brandon Rush is using training camp and the preseason to convince the Pacers to pick up his his $2.9 million team option for the 11-12 season.

Rush will be suspended for the first five games of the season.

"I do think it could play a part a little bit, but I'm trying not to worry about it," said Rush, who has been practicing with the second unit. "I should be fine as long as I come out here and show I've been putting in the work and I've changed my lifestyle. Everything should work out fine if I do those things."

The Pacers are expected to pick up center Roy Hibbert's $2.6 million option for next season.

Chris Mullin may still be on Donnie Walsh's radar to fill the Knicks' vacant general manager position.

There has been some speculation that James Dolan prefers to keep that spot available for Isiah Thomas.  But Walsh would rather hire Mullin or Allan Houston for the job.

Dolan believes that Walsh currently has enough support in the front office with Glen Grunwald and John Gabriel working under him.

Walsh is in the final season of his contract.