The Lakers exercised a fourth-year contract option on Caron Butler, the team announced Sunday.  Butler was part of the Shaquille O'Neal trade with the Miami Heat.

The Lakers declined to pick up the fourth-year option on Kareem Rush.

Butler, a third-year forward out of Connecticut who was acquired earlier this summer from the Miami Heat, has career averages of 12.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.45 steals in 33.5 minutes and was a member of the NBA All-Rookie first team following the 2002-03 season.

Entering his third season, Rush, a 6-6 guard out of the University of Missouri, averaged a career-best 6.4 points in 72 games last season, including a career-high 30-point performance on Jan. 16 at Sacramento.

According to a published report on the Oregon Live website, Sports Radio 1080 The Fan is reporting Zach Randolph and the Blazers have come to terms on a six-year contract extension.

The value of the contract is unknown, but rumors suggest it's worth $86 million, the maximum allowed under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement.

Teams had until today to sign first round picks from the 2001 class to contract extensions.

Playing on a subpar roster in Atlanta, Antoine Walker might be on his way for a season in which he averages 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game. If Walker brings the kind of leadership the Hawks are hoping for, he could be hard for the Hawks to part with.

General manager Billy Knight has called Walker the kind of player he would like to have going forward, but it won't be easy.

Walker makes $14.625 million this season in the final year of his contract and would almost certainly have to take a pay cut to remain.  It is highly unlikely that any other club would give him a contract worth as much as the Boston Celtics did several years ago.

One alternative would be to deal Walker during the season or after, possibly in a sign-and-trade deal. There is now a strong chance that both the Hawks and Walker would want to continue their relationship.

It looks like it is going to be another long year for the Chicago Bulls and their supporters, with the youthful team sporting even more youth this year with six rookies expected to be on the team's 15 man roster.

While most know about Ben Gordon, Leul Deng, and Argentinian Andres Nocioni, the likes of 2003 second-round pick Tommy Smith, 2004 second-round pick Chris Duhon and undrafted free agent Jared Reiner all have made the team with solid performances in training camp.

Milwaukee guard T.J. Ford remains confident that he will soon be back in the NBA after being sidelined since Feburary after a serious injury.

"I will play in the NBA again," Ford said. "There's no doubt in my mind. That's not even a question."

Ford, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has not been able to do anything since his spinal injury caused by a fall against the Minnesota Timberwolves.  A starter for 55 games prior to his injury, the Bucks have no timetable for his return.

"That's great," coach Terry Porter said when asked about Ford's vow to return. "The doctors, I think, have said that he's coming back but they don't know a timetable. That's the big thing. Each process, he has to get permission to do more and more things. He's only pushing as far as the doctors have told him he can push."

"We're moving. But we just may be moving slower than I think everyone wants us to."

The Washington Wizards have chosen to pick up the fourth year option on forward Jared Jeffries but not on guard Juan Dixon, the Washington Post is reporting.

According to President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfield the decision to decline the option on Dixon was was made to give the team the ability to keep several free agents.

Starting shooting guard Larry Hughes will be an unrestricted free agent. Starting big men Kwame Brown and Brendan Haywood and backup point guard Steve Blake will be restricted free agents next summer. Grunfeld said the decision to pass on Dixon's option was strictly business.

"We like both players," he said. "Jared has some size to him and he has shown some progress, as has Juan. But this doesn't mean that down the road, Juan isn't a part of the organization. We just have a lot of money tied up in the guard position and this gives us more flexibility."

Washington had until Sunday to sign Brown and Haywood to extensions.

Knick outcast Shandon Anderson has made his feelings clear that he is not injured and as such will be doing everything he can to keep the Knicks from putting him on the injured list to start the season.

NBA rules allow teams to have twelve active players with an additional three inactive recouperating from injury.  Every team stashes healthy players on this list while the league takes no preventive action.

"By laws of the league, if you're not injured, you don't have to go on the injured list," Anderson said. "So I'm not injured. So there's no need for me to go on the injured list. If I go on the injured list, I'm basically stuck there for the year. "

"Once I get on there, there's no coming off. I'm not putting myself in that situation. The answer is no. If I'm not injured and I'm healthy, the answer's going to be no."

Both the Knicks and Anderson prefer a buyout of Anderson's contract, but the two sides are a long way apart on the dollar amount for a settlement on the remaining $24 million owed.

Anderson said he's "pretty much an outcast. I don't want to be in a situation where I come to work everyday, the mood around me is, when I come in, it's that vibe I feel. People walk by you and don't speak."

Depth may be an issue for the Seattle Supersonics, especially early, with the team receiving news that starting center Vitaly Potapenko fractured the ring finger of his right hand during the victory against Portland and will be sidelined for five to six weeks.

According to the Seattle Times the Sonics may also be without star forward Rashard Lewis for the opener because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

Jerome James, who hasn't played in four of the past five games, will start at center for Wednesday's regular-season opener in Los Angeles against the Los Angeles Clippers.

"Health for any team is very important, and losing Vitaly is a blow," McMillan said. "But like I told them, you've got to move on. Injuries are a part of the game."

Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, told stockholders that he looked into purchasing the Golden State Warriors from current owner Chris Cohan.

"I did actually look at buying the Warriors," Ellison said, "and they're also not for sale."

The Warriors would neither confirm nor deny Ellison had approached them.

Ellison is now making a bid to purchase a team of the NFL.  He spoke with the current owners of the San Francisco 49ers, but they are not for sale either.

Jason Collins, a 7-foot center out of Stanford, came to terms on a contract extension with the New Jersey Nets on Saturday, narrowly beating the October 31st deadline.

Collins turns just 26 on Dec. 2, and is entering his fourth NBA season. He averaged 5.9 points and 5.1 rebounds last season. In three seasons with the Nets, Collins has averaged 5.4 points and 4.5 rebounds.

"Something came up that I couldn't pass up," Collins said yesterday about the deal.

The Nets did not release contract details, but earlier in the week, Collins said he was pursuing a four-year extension worth $24 million.

Collins's signing was the Nets' latest move to regain a measure of stability after an off-season spate of cost-cutting moves. Since the team traded Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles over the summer, the Nets have signed small forward Richard Jefferson to a 6-year, $72 million extension; signed their team president, Rod Thorn, to a five-year contract extension; and locked up Collins for four more seasons.

Had Collins and the Nets been unable to come to an agreement by Sunday, they could not have negotiated again until after this season, and Collins could have become a restricted free agent.