Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor said Utah is preparing for the draft with the idea that veteran center Mehmet Okur might not return to action.

“What we’re planning on with Memo is to have him back and have him healthy,” O’Connor said. “How long it takes him to get back and into the flow of things, I don’t know. But you prepare for the worst, and you hope for the best.”

Okur is making progress during his rehabilitation and is expected to be in Salt Lake City by mid-June.

Kendrick Perkins wants to show up for training camp at 265 pounds, 20 pounds lighter than he is now. He's hired a nutritionist and is planning to get to work right away, spending most of his time working out in Houston with former coach John Lucas II.

In the back of Perkins' mind is something former teammate and forever mentor Kevin Garnett once told him. It's what will fuel the Thunder's big man during these summer months.

“He said you'll see who really got love for the game once they get their money,” Perkins said. “It's certain guys that get paid and they just stop working. I'm not going to be one of those guys.”

Mike Trudell of Lakers.com interviewed Lakers trainer Gary Vitti. Vitti said there’s no reversing the amount of “joint degeneration” in Kobe Bryant’s knee, but noted that Bryant’s knee is not yet arthritic.

MT: Kobe Bryant said there’s “another level” he can reach physically, the one we’re so accustomed to seeing where he creates separation from defenders and so on. So the question is, how does his having a chance to come in healthier balance out with the attrition you mentioned?

Vitti: We have to do some things so that he feels more comfortable and explosive with that right knee that he’s had repetitive surgeries on. Once we get to that place, then we’d like to see him practice more, but we don’t want the time that he spends on the court being spent on frivolous things. You gotta get him out there when he needs to be out there, and get him off the floor when he doesn’t. It’s more about quality time than quantity time.

MT: Can he be stronger if those things are followed the right way?

Vitti: Yes, I do think he has more progression there, but structurally there are some issues that cannot be reversed, but can be dealt with. There are a couple of cards we have up our sleeve that we plan on playing, and he and I have been in daily communication about that.

MT: What more can you tell us about the specifics of knee injuries for players with so many miles on the court as it might apply to Bryant?

Vitti: What happens with older players -- and this isn’t Kobe’s situation – is that tendinitis turns into tendinosis, and the tendon doesn’t have the same properties that it used to have. As a result it slows them down, and once you become a step slow in this league, it’s very, very difficult to compete. That’s not Kobe’s problem, however. His is an articulating cartilage problem. The way I describe that to people is that if you look at the end of chicken bone where it’s nice and white, well, that’s not bone, it’s cartilage. Sort of like a Teflon surface that when two bones come together, that cartilage is there so that bones don’t rub on each other. Now, the fact that it’s nice and white tells you it doesn’t have a good blood flow to it, and that means it cannot heal or regenerate. So, over time, as that cartilage wears away, you end up with osteoarthritis. Kobe doesn’t have an arthritic knee, but he has a knee that has some joint degeneration to it. His issues and his age are such that it eliminates some procedures, like microfracture and that type of things. But he is a candidate for certain other things, and we know all the procedures all around the world that are available to him, and the appropriate decisions will be made, he’ll have the best care.

After undergoing surgery on his spinal canal, Marquis Daniels faces an uncertain future with his health as well as his NBA career.

“Yeah, I questioned if I would play again, that night when I was laying on the floor,” Daniels said this week from his home in Orlando, Fla., where he is awaiting the next step, a June 28 meeting with doctors, who are expected to clear the mellow, soft-spoken Floridian for full workouts and a return to the NBA.

“They said there was a good chance they could correct it, but I also had to wait,” Daniels said of the prognosis. “That was the tough part. A lot of things went through my mind. But I just had to wait it out.”

Though the surgery he underwent March 31 to open space in his spinal canal was considered a success, he looks upon the June 28 meeting as passage back to his career, a signal that he can resume workouts that aren’t limited to an elliptical machine. Daniels hasn’t experienced any numbness since the surgery.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry underwent successful surgery on his right ankle earlier on Wednesday, the team announced.

The surgery, which was performed by Dr. Bob Anderson, a foot and ankle specialist at the OrthoCarolina Clinic in Charlotte North Carolina, repaired instability that existed in the ankle due to recurrent ankle sprains. Curry, who missed a total of eight (8) games last season due to multiple sprains of the right ankle, is expected to be ready for training camp in the fall.

Curry, 23, appeared in 74 games during the 2010-11 season, averaging 18.6 points, 5.8 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.47 steals. He led the NBA in free throw percentage (.934), ranked third in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage (.442) and became the first player in NBA history to shoot at least 45% from the floor (.480), 40% from three-point territory (.442) and 85% from the free throw line (.934) in his first two seasons in the league.

Chicago Bulls center Omer Asik is likely done for the rest of the season because of a muscle strain in his left leg, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Asik was able to play in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday against the Miami Heat, but he managed only two minutes of action before leaving the game for good.

The Heat will try to eliminate the Bulls in Game 5 on Thursday.

Asik suffered the initial injury in the third quarter of Game 3 on Sunday and did not return.

Manu Ginobili’s elbow injury appears to be more extensive than might have first been reported.

Ginobili told the Argentine website Noticiasmdq.com that he sustained a small fracture of the right humerus, the long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. The injury occurred in the final game of the regular season on April 13 when he was trapped in a collision between Tim Duncan and Phoenix’s Grant Hill.

The Spurs originally announced that Ginobili sustained a sprained elbow. He missed the first game of the playoffs and then played the remaining five games with the injury in the six-game series loss to Memphis. He averaged a team-leading 20.6 points per game against the Grizzlies despite playing with a balky brace.

“Last Wednesday, the medical staff of San Antonio I had the last MRI,” Ginobili said. “The liquid has been absorbed and small fracture in the humerus is welded at 85 percent. I have to be doing nothing for 3 weeks and then begin slowly.”

Rockets center Yao Ming said his rehab remains on schedule, and X-rays taken Wednesday "showed good news."

He hasn't worn the protective boot for a few months and is able to do light jogging and weight lifting.

The next doctor's visit is planned for later this summer, although Yao said there was not yet an exact date.

"We'll know more in August or September," he said.

Based on his past injury history, Yao was cautious not to put any timetable on a possible return.

"All I can do right now is what I'm supposed to do everyday," he said. "You never know what happens tomorrow."

It's been exactly one month and a day since Chauncey Billups strained his left knee in Game 1 of the New York Knicks' first-round series against the Celtics, but he's still not feeling 100 percent.

"I can't get on the court and really like grind, grind," said Billups, whose injury came while driving to the lane with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, and the score tied at 82. "I'm still not ready to do that, but I'm getting better though. At this point, I'm just kind of taking it easy, man."

Billups said he will be flying to New York in the next couple of weeks to have another MRI to make sure everything is healing properly.

Raptors center Amir Johnson will have surgery next week to take care of a “ligament issue,” president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said Tuesday night.

Johnson, who missed the last week of the regular season with an ankle issue, will have the surgery within the next week in North Carolina and it will be conducted by the same doctor who performed foot surgery on Reggie Evans, Colangelo said.

Johnson will be ready for the start of training camp, Colangelo added.