Robert Whaley does not even know for certain that he has made the Jazz roster ? yet he faces the prospect of being suspended for their regular-season opener.

The Jazz had not yet heard from the NBA on Wednesday regarding an incident involving second-round draft choice Whaley in Tuesday's preseason loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, basketball boss Kevin O'Connor said.

Still, there seemed to be a sense of resignation that the league's disciplinarians would soon call.

"Robert is a rookie," O'Connor said, "and he's got to learn his actions could cost the team something ? and cost himself something."

A monetary fine and perhaps a suspension may await Whaley, who punched Adam Parada's neck after the Lakers free agent elbowed him in the throat in Tuesday's closing minutes.

"We told them in the beginning that if you do that you're either going to get fined or suspended," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I can't help them there.

"You can't react," Sloan added. "You've just got to swallow it up."

With the start of the NBA regular season just one week away, the Bobcats strengthened their frontcourt with the acquisition of forward Jumaine Jones from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a future second round pick on Wednesday, October 26.

"Jumaine Jones is a versatile player who provides a different dimension to our frontcourt positions and will help us in many ways on both ends of the floor," Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "He is a proven outside shooter and has shown success rebounding the ball. We look forward to having him on our roster."

Jones averaged 7.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and shot .391 from three-point range in 24.1 minutes last season for the Lakers. He ranked 18th in the NBA in three-point percentage, connecting on 102-261 attempts, and reached double-figure scoring 21 times, including a season-high 25 points on 7-8 from the three-point line against Orlando on Dec. 12.

The 6-8, 218-pound forward has appeared in 377 career games with Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and L.A. Lakers with career averages of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 20.0 minutes. His top scoring season came in 2002-03 when he averaged 9.8 points with Cleveland and he grabbed a career-best 6.0 rebounds in the 2001-02 season with the Cavaliers.

Jones was drafted by Atlanta with the 27th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, but had his draft rights traded to Philadelphia. An early entry candidate, Jones spent two seasons at the University of Georgia, where he averaged 16.6 points on .449 (385-858) shooting from the field and 9.0 rebounds in 31.7 minutes. He also recorded 1,079 points and became the first sophomore to reach 1,000 points since fellow alum and NBA great Dominique Wilkins did so during his collegiate career.

Devean George, one of the last links to the most recent string of Laker championship runs, could be in his final season as a Laker. Suddenly one of the older faces on the roster, the team's first-round pick in 1999 is in the final year of a four-year, $18.5-million contract.

"I'm just going to play and let things happen, however they flow," George said. "Just let the chips fall where they fall."
 
The chips pretty much tumbled into the abyss last season.

George, 28, became a forgotten man, missing all but 15 games because of complications relating to off-season ankle surgery.

Early in training camp, Lakers coach Phil Jackson spelled out second-year guard Sasha Vujacic's role as being a "specialty shooter" off the bench. So far, though, there's been nothing special about Vujacic's shooting in the exhibition season.

Vujacic is shooting 1 for 14 (7.1 percent) and missed the lone 3-pointer he took in Friday's 109-93 victory against Charlotte at Staples Center. He played only nine minutes and had his dribble stolen by Brevin Knight in the second quarter.

"He's still conscious that he has to hurry his shot, so we're trying to get him to relax a little bit," Jackson said. "He's still a young kid that we want to keep nurturing and keep bringing along."

But Jackson added the Lakers have talked about having Vujacic play for their Fort Worth, Texas, affiliate in the NBA Development League. It is not something the 21-year-old Vujacic would welcome.

"I came here to play NBA, to play in the best league possible in the world, and to play for one of the best coaches in the NBA," Vujacic said. "I don't know what will happen, but hopefully I will stay here."

Only 12 hours after he criticized Kobe Bryant's shot selection down the stretch of an exhibition game, Lakers coach Phil Jackson was on a teleconference Wednesday talking about his superstar guard as a possible MVP candidate.

"(I) think he can have that type of a season," Jackson said. "He's that type of a player. He has matured. He is trying to use his energy for the optimum benefit of the ballclub."

"I see him coming (in) many times ... two to three hours ahead of practice," Jackson added, "doing the therapy and doing the extra work that it takes to reach that kind of level and know that this is something that Kobe really wants to regain."

Jackson said it would be hard for Bryant to merit MVP consideration on a team that wasn't what he called "top echelon." He also said of last season, "I think being named third team All-NBA was a slap in the face for Kobe."

Vlade Divac ended his 16-year NBA playing career Tuesday, easing into a new job with the Los Angeles Lakers as a liaison and scout in Europe.

The Lakers bought out Divac's contract for $2 million. The 37-year-old center had back surgery in January and played in 15 games last season, averaging 2.3 points and 2.1 rebounds.

"I didn't have fun anymore with the injury I had," he said. "If I didn't have fun, I wouldn't play my best."

The Lakers could have picked up a one-year, $5.4 million option on the 7-foot-1, 260-pounder or put him on waivers.

Divac said he had seriously considered playing this season, "but I couldn't find the ride that would take me there."

There will come a moment before tonight's preseason game between the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Lakers in Bakersfield, Calif., when Gilbert Arenas and Kwame Brown cross paths, make eye contact and, perhaps, address one another.

Brown, who was traded to the Lakers this summer for Chucky Atkins and Caron Butler, will be in the starting lineup for Los Angeles while Arenas will be back on the court for Washington after missing the last two games with groin and hamstring soreness.

How will Arenas react to seeing Brown for the first time since Brown was traded to the Lakers in August?

"Who?" Arenas asked. "Number 54. Oh, he's not at my position so I don't really care. That's the Lakers' decision. That doesn't really have anything to do with me."

"This ain't no Kobe-Shaq thing," Arenas continued. "It'll be a handshake. 'Hey what's up? How are you doing? Let's play.' "

Brown recently said that he skipped practice during the playoffs last spring -- and earned a suspension -- because he wanted to avoid physically harming Arenas. According to Brown, Arenas had told Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan not to play Brown.

Brown, however, struck a conciliatory tone when asked about Arenas on Sunday.

"No ill will," Brown told reporters in Los Angeles. "I'll go shake [Arenas's] hand. I'll go shake the whole team's hand. Regardless of how some of the players might feel about me or I feel about him, we're professionals."

For the second consecutive October, Lakers forward Luke Walton is facing an early season setback, this time after suffering a severe hamstring strain with three minutes left in Tuesday night's exhibition opener against Golden State.

Walton, who struggled to find a place in then-coach Rudy Tomjanovich's rotation last season after spraining his ankle in training camp, is expected to be sidelined two to six weeks. If he is out six weeks, Walton could miss 10 regular-season games.

Playing in the backcourt, Walton went to take a return pass from Brian Cook off a back-door cut when he came up limping and grabbing the back of his leg. Walton said afterward he never has had a hamstring injury before in his career.

"Last year didn't really work out for me very well," Walton said. "I'm going to take it a day at a time rehabbing it. I'm not going to come back early. I don't want this thing to linger. Whenever I can get back out there, I guess that's when I'll start trying to make up lost time."

Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant seem to have formed a mutual admiration society as they begin their second tour of duty together with the Los Angeles Lakers.

One would never know they had a tough time getting along the first time around.

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Maybe problems will surface, especially if the Lakers aren't successful, as many expect.

There's certainly no sign of that now.

"I just think he's a very determined player and dedicated to what he's doing. He's doing a lot of letting things develop on their own," Jackson said before Bryant scored 28 points in 27 minutes to lead the Lakers past Golden State 101-93 on Tuesday night.

"I think the biggest change is we have a system that we believe in and we trust," Bryant said after the preseason opener. "It's Phil and the system -- absolutely. It's a beautiful system. When everything's clicking, it's a beautiful thing to watch."

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak wanted to sign Bobcats restricted free-agent sharpshooter Jason Kapono before the Heat got down to business last week.

He was overruled, though, by Jimmy Buss, somebody entrenched in the mix confirms.