The Los Angeles Lakers have assigned guard Von Wafer to the Fort Worth Flyers of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Wafer was selected by the Lakers in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft with the 39th pick overall.  He has appeared in 16 games, averaging 1.3 points and 0.5 rebounds in 4.6 minutes.

The Jazz held off on dealing Carlos Boozer to the Lakers, but look for that deal to be revisited this summer. The Lakers' package included Brian Cook and Chris Mihm, but the Jazz believes it can do better than that.

Once Boozer is a Laker, Lamar Odom is gone, if not before.

Having their bid for a new arena rejected more than once by Sacramento voters, Kings owners Gavin and Joe Maloof have quietly let it be known that they'd like to relocate to Anaheim.

In Orange County, the Maloofs would be closer to their operations in Las Vegas. They already have plans to use an Anaheim location to drive their marketing for their hotel and casino, The Palms. That includes giving high-rollers use of luxury suites for Kings games and also having plenty of signage in the arena for their Vegas enterprises.

The Maloofs can easily afford the franchise transfer fee, which experts say will be at least double the $30 million the Hornets paid the league to flee Charlotte for New Orleans. But the Maloofs will face strong opposition from the Lakers and Clippers, who will fight a third team entering what they consider their backyard.

On Thursday the Lakers reportedly sweetened their Lamar Odom package by adding other veterans, but the Knicks wouldn't part with Channing Frye.

According to the Houston Chroncile Derek Anderson is attracting some interest, with up to five teams considering acquiring the shooting guard.

The Rockets have tried to complete a deal to move Anderson to the Heat, Cavaliers, Lakers, Nuggets or Magic.

However, each team had other, greater priorities, making a deal with the Rockets unlikely until closer to today's 3 p.m. deadline.

"Everyone's aggressive right now to try to better their team," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I don't think there's one team that's not aggressively looking to better their team. Some general managers will tell you that. Usually the losing ones, like us ... you guys would think we were nuts if we said, 'You know what, we really like how it's going this year. This is good stuff right here, so we're going to stand pat and feel good.'

"The other ones are going to try to con you. They're trying to get better, too. Detroit is, I'm sure, going to try to find a backup point. Either you're going to try to get better or you're trying to dump contracts so you can get better.

"Either way, you're trying to do something. But every article is the same: We don't expect anything to happen. If it doesn't, 'It's hey I told you.' If it does, it came up at the last second."

Dime Magazine reported on Wednesday night that they have been hearing that the Lakers are making a late push for Kevin Garnett.

Any such scenario would likely include Lamar Odom, who has been having a disappointing season, as well as young center Andrew Bynum.

Lamar Odom's recent slump led to talks with some teams, many contacting the Lakers in hopes of getting the struggling forward for a bargain price.

One of the more compelling deals would have sent Odom to the New York Knicks for sixth-year guard Jamal Crawford and rookies Nate Robinson and Channing Frye, although the Knicks were unwilling to part with Frye to make the trade work, according to numerous sources.

Odom was also linked to a trade with the Orlando Magic for guard Steve Francis in a published report that was emphatically denied by the Lakers.

Kevin Garnett's status, perhaps more than anything, is holding up any truly major deals involving the elite stars of the game. The feeling around the NBA remains - based more on observation than actual information - that something inevitably will crack in Minnesota and Garnett will be traded or ask to be traded.

Garnett has been a Lakers' Plan A or B for some time now after Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire re-signed. Boston, Seattle, Indiana, Golden State and the Bulls are some of the teams reportedly hanging back just in case Garnett ever came on the trade market.

In this NBA, it would seem that you need just one other good player with Garnett to be in the playoffs and two (especially one who's a finisher) to be a championship contender. It's why even in Minnesota there have been rumors recently of trying to reacquire Stephon Marbury.

Garnett is the best three-quarters player in the NBA; versatile, defensive-minded, tough. He just doesn't quite have that go-to move to finish off a game. But put him with a scorer, like Kobe Bryant, and you have a potential championship duo.

The Timberwolves have been badly mismanaged for years with little stability to create a team. Garnett knows all this and, at least for now, says he's sticking by his crew, whomever that may be from day to day.

Laker officials denied there was anything to a published report that the team is pursuing a Lamar Odom-Steve Francis trade with Orlando.

"He knows at this time there are a lot of rumors out there," said Odom's agent, Jeff Schwartz, "and he's taking them with a grain of salt."

Kobe Bryant consistently had the largest crowd of reporters around his table during the NBA All-Star Game's media session Friday.

Popular lines of questioning were Bryant's 81-point game and the next Team USA, but there was also interest in how he is handling playing for a mediocre Lakers team with an uncertain future.

Bryant said he and Coach Phil Jackson aren't that uncertain about it.

"When Phil and I have talked about the future of this team, we both feel like we're not that far away," Bryant said. "One piece, two pieces, maybe. So the vision that we have for the team may be a little different from the direction other people may see us going in. As long as we're on the same page, we're fine."

About the salary-cap space the Lakers will have in 2007 to sign free agents, Bryant said: "I get calls every day from players wanting to come out to L.A. and play. If Mitch (Kupchak) was to ask me about it, I would just tell him and let him handle it from there."

Bryant didn't name the players calling him, but he did say several former teammates called with congratulations after his 81-point game: Caron Butler, Chucky Atkins, Ruben Patterson and Tyronn Lue. Bryant also said Baron Davis called.