Jerome Lewis, the agent for Luis Flores, said he expects the Nuggets to waive the guard today.

If Denver waits until Wednesday, it owes Flores $150,000, and the rest of his $620,000 contract on opening night.

Lewis said Toronto and Utah are interested in Flores.

That was the reaction from Raptors general manager Rob Babcock yesterday when asked about a report in a Utah newspaper that his team is interested in Jazz guard Keith McLeod.

"We can't get him unless he suddenly turns into a minimum-salary guy," Babcock said yesterday on the phone from Minnesota. "And regardless, I'm sure Utah wants to keep him.

"We had expressed some interest in him, sure. I'm not trying to hide anything. We spoke with his agent. But he falls directly into that category where we determined we don't have enough money left to make a serious bid."

The Toronto Raptors are the first NBA team to acknowledge interest in signing Utah Jazz restricted free agent guard Keith McLeod. But the Raptors also expressed doubt that the Jazz would allow McLeod to move to another team and would instead match an offer sheet for him.

Toronto GM Rob Babcock has said that he's had "discussions with Keith's agent," but he added, "right now all indications are is that they (Jazz) would match, although that may change later on. He's somebody that we have checked in with, and he's somebody that's on our list."
     
McLeod's agent told the Deseret Morning News by telephone that he does not make public comment on his clients' doings, and he preferred not to have his name reported.

Instead of capping his summer by playing at a high-level international basketball tournament, Raptors centre Rafael Araujo will be putting drops in his eyes.

The oft-criticized first-round pick from 2004 came down with a case of conjunctivitis (pink eye) last week, which will prevent him from playing for Brazil in the FIBA Americas world championship qualifying tournament in the Dominican Republic this week.

"It's not a threatening thing or anything, but it's very contagious in a contact sport and if you get your eye scratched, it can become serious," said Raptors general manager Rob Babcock, who cancelled his trip to the Dominican Republic after learning of Araujo's condition.

"It's too bad, but the good thing is he has gone through the biggest part of the summer (with Brazil). It would have been great for him to get some extra game experience, but he finished off very strong in the last exhibition game and got a double-double against the U.S. ... He had a solid month practising every day against good players and he got some good things out of it. There's nothing we can do about it."

In a press release announcing Araujo's absence, Brazilian coach Aluisio Ferreira said, "(Araujo) is still suffering problems in his left eye and cannot play for two weeks."

Matt Bonner is coming back and if Raptor general manager Rob Babcock is true to his word, at least one of Bonner's teammates is going to have to go.

With the second-year forward on the verge of signing a two-year contract worth about $4 million (all figures U.S.), the Raptors have a roster full of players with guaranteed contracts and if Babcock honestly wants to add a third point guard, some veteran is going to have to be waived or traded for some sort of future consideration.

Bonner's agent said yesterday he expects the 25-year-old forward to formally sign his new deal in the next day or two.

"We just have a few details that don't effect the money that have to be worked out, it's nothing big," Kenny Grant said in a telephone interview.

But adding Bonner officially sets up more moves for Babcock, who's been unable to find a third point guard this summer.

Bonner's return gives Toronto 15 guaranteed contracts, and a third point guard would push that total past the maximum number allowed. Under new NBA rules, teams have to carry 14 players but can carry 15 and Babcock has yet to say which number the Raptors will be at.

There has been no indication which of the current Raptors would be on Babcock's hit list but the list of players unlikely to contribute in this rebuilding season includes Lamond Murray and Aaron Williams and, perhaps, Eric Williams.

Matt Bonner plans to sign a two-year contract worth about $4 million as early as Sunday, the Sunday News has learned.

"We're still negotiating, but we're just about finished," Bonner's agent, Kenny Grant, said yesterday. "Right now, I don't want to jump the gun and say much until it's done, but we hope to be finished this weekend."

After losing out on Chris Duhon when the Bulls decided to match his offer sheet, the Toronto Raptors are going back to the drawing board in their search for a point guard.

"We'll make some decisions in the next three or four days on what we'd like to do," Babcock said last night. "We absolutely want to carry three point guards, it's just a matter of now not getting Duhon, what level of point guard we're going to get.

"It might be a minimum-contract guy. That's the whole exercise we're going to go through now."

There are only a few point guards available who would fit Babcock's criteria, although the market is rapidly shrinking.

Memphis's Earl Watson, Miami's Damon Jones and Atlanta's Tyronn Lue are three who are still available but likely too expensive for Toronto.

New Jersey's Travis Best and unsigned ex-Raptor Milt Palacio remain on the market.

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday they have designated centre Alonzo Mourning for the amnesty provision under the NBA?s new collective bargaining agreement.

The provision allows a team to remove a player?s contract amount from the team?s salary cap for purposes of calculating the luxury tax.

The Raptors announced February 11 that they had reached an agreement with Mourning to buy out the remaining two years of his contract. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

As expected, the Bulls have decided to match the three-year, $9.07 million offer sheet guard Chris Duhon signed with the Toronto Raptors, but plan on waiting until the deadline late this afternoon before officially doing so, a team source said Sunday.

''You never know what might happen, so that's the reason for waiting until the end of the day,'' the source said. ''But unless something really unforeseen happens, [the offer sheet] will be matched.''

Matt Bonner's agent knows what it means if the Raptors wind up with Chris Duhon.

Given the financial ramifications, it almost certainly would signal an end to Bonner's days in Toronto.

But the fact the Raptors have signed Duhon to a free-agent offer sheet hardly comes as a shock to Kenny Grant, who represents Bonner.

"No, it doesn't surprise me," Grant said yesterday when asked about Duhon, who played for the Chicago Bulls last season.

"The Raptors have to do what they have to do. And we have to let it play out and see what happens."

Both Bonner, a forward, and Duhon, a point guard, have played one NBA season and are restricted free agents. Both were dissatisfied with the initial contract offers they got from their old employers, and have sought greater riches on the open market.

The Bulls have a week to match the Raptors' offer to Duhon, which is believed to be for three years, with annual salaries ranging from about $2.5 million US in the first year to $3.5 million in the final year.