About that Howard/Camby trade you've been talking about this morning... it may be fruitful to move to another topic.

According to Greg Logan of NewsDay, Knicks president and general manager Scott Layden tried to pull off a deal for Dallas power forward Juwan Howard and his famously bloated contract yesterday. But a Western Conference team official with knowledge of the talks indicated to Logan late last night that the deal fell through.

Logan writes that several NBA sources confirmed yesterday that Layden offered injured Knicks center Marcus Camby as the centerpiece of the deal for the Mavericks, who also would have had to take on a few of the contracts Layden has been trying so hard to move.

Earlier this morning, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that while the Suns and Celtics were reshuffling their rosters yesterday, the Knicks were holding serious negotiations with the Dallas Mavericks that could see Juwan Howard and Marcus Camby swapping zip codes.

The snag, however, is the fact that Howard makes $18.75 million per season compared to Camby's $6 million, meaning more players/teams would need to be added before today's 6pm deadline for a deal to be approved by the league.

The Knicks have given up building around the talented-but-brittle Camby, while it is believed that Mark Cuban is trying to improve the Mavericks defense.  Charlie Ward and Shandon Anderson, both solid defenders, are possible inclusions as well reports Berman.  Camby is expected to be out until April but will be should to make a playoff run, somewhere where the Mavericks are sure to be.

"It shouldn't be too hard to trade Juwan," a league source said. "But they're talking to everyone in the league. It's tough to deal with them because they throw everything out there. You don't know whether they're serious or not."

The potential deal for Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz is now all but dead, while the possible acquisitions of either Marc Jackson, Erick Dampier or Danny Fortson are also considered slim.  New York coach Don Chaney remains uncertain of a Knicks deal taking place.

"He (Layden) hasn't given me any indication there's a doable deal out there," Chaney said.

Dave D'Allessandro of the Star-Ledger writes that as of late yesterday, Layden and Don Nelson were working with these parameters: Camby, Shandon Anderson and Charlie Ward -- three players Nellie is known to covet -- for Howard, a player who is a chronic source of irritation for the Dallas coach and GM.

But talks were on hold late last night, according to a Dallas official, because the Mavs had misgivings about Camby's ability to return from his torn right hip muscle in time to help a team that has title aspirations. "That was the main issue -- we can't be sure about Marcus' health," the official said.