Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had hip replacement surgery Friday.

Cuban is expected to remain in the hospital for 2-3 days after having his left hip replaced. Cuban will have to use crutches to get around for about three weeks after that.

Team officials said the 48-year-old Cuban is expected to make a full recovery, and that the replacement will not prevent him from doing his regular activities. Cuban said during the NBA draft Thursday night that he'd still be able to play basketball after getting his hip replaced.

Mavericks forward Devean George elected to become an unrestricted free agent on Sunday, the day 2007-08 contracts kick in. The Mavericks were alerted by George's agent, Mark Bartelstein, that the 6-8 swingman would forego the second year of the contract he signed with the Mavericks last summer. He would have earned $2.16 million next season.

Instead, he is free to sign with any team, including the Mavericks. His agent told the Mavs that George enjoyed his season in Dallas and there's a good chance he will return. But George felt compelled to test the open market.

Regardless of whether Warriors coach Don Nelson returns to the sidelines next season, his fall schedule is likely to include a stop in court, where his arbitration suit against Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is taking on new dimensions.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Cuban filed a counterclaim against Nelson last month, contending that the former Mavs coach violated his non-compete clause by using insider information against Dallas during the playoffs.

The source also said that Cuban is seeking an injunction against Nelson working for Golden State, though the litigation has no bearing on Nelson's pending decision on coaching again or retiring.

Reached by phone this week, Nelson's lawyer, John O'Connor, would say only that the Cuban's claim was baseless, particularly the notion about inside information.

"I suppose if Don knows that (Dirk) Nowitzki likes to go to his right and not his left, that that is confidential information as far as Cuban is concerned," O'Connor said. "We disagree and think it's absurd."

The Orlando Magic obtained the draft rights to forward Milovan Rakovic (RACK-oh-vich) (60th overall) and cash considerations from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to forward Reyshawn Terry (44th overall).

Rakovic (6?10?, 2/19/85) has played his entire professional career in Serbia.  Last season (2006-07), he played with KK Mega Ishrana, where he averaged 12.9 ppg. and 4.6 rpg. in 21.4 minpg. during A1 League play.  He also averaged 8.6 ppg. and 3.8 rpg. in 16.4 minpg. during SuperLeague action.  Rakovic started with Polet Keramike in the Serbian 1B League before moving on to KK Atlas in the A1 League for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

Terry (6?8?, 232, 4/7/84) played four seasons at the University of North Carolina, averaging 7.3 ppg. and 3.5 rpg. in 126 career games.

Former NBA head coach Paul Westphal was hired Thursday to be a Dallas Mavericks assistant coach.

While Westphal has been out of the NBA since being fired as Seattle's coach 15 games into the 2000-01 season, he had a 267-159 record as the coach for Phoenix (1992-95) and Seattle (1998-2000).

"We are thrilled to add Paul Westphal to our basketball family. As one of the greatest offensive coaching minds in the NBA, Paul brings a wealth of experience as a coach and as a former player," Mavs coach Avery Johnson said. "He is a man of strong character and integrity and is excited about joining our staff in its path to win a championship."

For Dallas, the status of both Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George will be resolved in the next week, the Dallas Morning News is reporting.

George's agent, Mark Bartelstein, said Monday he will meet with his client in the coming days to figure out whether George will exercise his option for a second season with the Mavericks at $2.16 million. The other option is to terminate the deal and become an unrestricted free agent.

"Devean loved it in Dallas and he loved playing for Avery Johnson," Bartelstein said. "But as we all know, this is a business."

Stackhouse's situation is slightly clearer. The sixth man becomes an unrestricted free agent Sunday, meaning he can sign anywhere in the league.

However, only two teams will have significant money under the salary cap and neither Charlotte nor Atlanta makes much sense for Stackhouse, who can still score with the best of them but doesn't fit the profile for building or rebuilding teams like the Bobcats and Hawks.

Since it is unlikely anyone will be able to offer Stackhouse more than the mid-level salary exception (expected to be roughly $6 million), the Mavericks figure to be able to offer him more than anybody else.

The Houston Rockets, who re-acquired guard Mike James for Juwan Howard last week, appear willing to make more trades ahead of next week's NBA Draft, the Houston Chronicle is reporting.

Vassilis Spanoulis already has all but written his own ticket out of town, telling the team recently that he will not participate in the summer league next month. The Rockets apparently are trying to snag one of the Mavericks' three second-round draft picks in exchange for Spanoulis.

The Los Angeles Clippers also appear to be discussing trading forward James Singleton (6-8, 215 pounds) to the Rockets in a deal that would involve John Lucas III.

And the Los Angeles Lakers are contemplating a deal involving guard Luther Head in exchange for power forward Brian Cook.

In an interview on ESPN's Sports Center, Ric Bucher says that Kobe Bryant remains adamant about being traded by the Lakers.  He had been hearing that the Lakers didn?t believe that he wanted to be traded and is why he arranged a meeting with Dr. Jerry Buss, according to sources.  

The three teams recently being mentioned as possible trading partners are Dallas, Phoenix and Chicago.

According to Bucher, the Bulls are exploring their options to acquire Bryant.

Erick Dampier underwent successful shoulder surgery Friday to repair a small tear of the right rotator cuff.

Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said that Dampier was to be commended for having the surgery early in the summer rather than waiting until closer to the season. Training camp begins in early October with the regular season starting a month later.

"He's done everything we've asked and more," Nelson said of the 6-11 center. "Initially, it was a very small tear and we wanted to let nature take its course and see if it would heal on its own.

"But it wasn't healing as quickly as we'd have liked. So we wanted to go in and clean it up and get started fresh with it."

Paul Westphal, who was a head coach in the NBA for seven years, has emerged as a strong candidate to join Mavericks coach Avery Johnson's staff.

Westphal, a former NBA All-Star, has been out of coaching since 2005 after spending four seasons at Pepperdine University. He has been doing television work in the Los Angeles area the last two years.