Cuttino Mobley appeared on Fox Sports' "Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Thursday, writes Clutch of Clutchcity.net.  When asked about the possibility of drafting Yao Ming, Mobley demurred and, after some prodding, said he'd rather trade the pick for a proven player.

"Um... somebody's proven," said Mobley. "What we can do is, and coach I love you, (but) what would be good, and Steve and I were talking about this, is trade the first round pick and get someone already established."

Hosts suggested Lamar Odom, who has been rumored several places (most recently in the New York Post) to be heading to Houston for the #1 pick, and Mobley launched into a little Francis-Odom-Mobley fantasy: "With Lamar running the break and Steve and I on the wings... it's over."  He went on at some length singing Odom's praises.

Andy Katz of espn.com reports: Western Kentucky senior center Chris Marcus is expected to withdraw from the NBA draft Friday and return for his fourth season of eligibility, fifth season at the school, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com on Thursday.

The school has called a "major news conference,'' for Friday at 5 p.m. ET with Marcus and Western Kentucky coach Dennis Felton. Marcus needs to take one summer-school class to earn his college degree and earn back his fourth season of eligibility after being ineligible for his freshman season at the school.

The 7-foot-1 Marcus, who was a potential late lottery pick, didn't sign with an agent and hasn't conducted any predraft workouts. The NBA failed to get Marcus to return phone calls as to whether he would accept an invitation to play in the Chicago predraft camp next week at the Moody Bible Institute. NBA teams have been waiting for a chance to watch Marcus but without representation, but their pleas have been to no avail.

Marcus was considered the top senior in the 2002 draft, and his departure would mean that either Fresno State fifth-year senior power forward Melvin Ely and/or Gonzaga fifth-year senior point guard Dan Dickau could be the first senior drafted, but possibly not until in the mid-to-late teens in the first round or lower. The first senior taken in the 2001 draft was at No. 6 when the Grizzlies selected Duke's Shane Battier. Only four seniors were selected in the first round of the 2001 draft.

Underclassmen have until June 19 to withdraw from the June 26 draft and retain their eligibility.

With the hype surrounding Yao Ming, Jay Williams, Dajuan Wagner and a few others, Caron Butler seems to have been a bit lost in the shuffle.  One of his NBA comparisons is Paul Pierce.  An interesting irony in the comparison is that Pierce kept tumbling on draft night until Boston finally landed him with the 10th pick.

Butler visited Memphis Wednesday for a workout.  The Grizzlies had scouted him about 15 times previously.  The Commercial Appeal's Ron Tillery says that Butler brings a combination of toughness and versatile talent.

He adds that Butler represents the athletic, high-scoring swingman missing on the Grizzlies' roster. What separates Butler from other highly touted small forwards, such as Duke's Mike Dunleavy Jr., is his powerful 6-7, 240-pound frame.

Tillery says the Grizzlies' brass have discounted Butler's past.  His high school career in Racine, Wis., was tainted by a 15-month sentence for bringing a gun and cocaine into school. Butler spent six months in an adult prison and nine months in a juvenile detention center.

Team president Jerry West says surviving the ill streets sometimes enhances maturity.  He added that, "I've always felt that kids that are able to overcome some difficulties are the ones who seem most resilient."

In the history of the NBA draft, through franchise shifts and accusations of tanking right up to the evolution of the lottery, i.e., "the Rocket Rule," you'd have to say the odds had worked out pretty well for the namesakes.

1968: Three years before they move from San Diego to Houston, the Rockets win a coin flip with Baltimore and take Elvin Hayes with the first pick, the first of five in franchise history.

1976: Swap with Atlanta and take point guard John Lucas.

1983: Win coin flip and take Ralph Sampson.

1984: Win coin flip and take Hakeem Olajuwon.

Moral: The Rockets were so good at this stuff, they could have told you which foot Mary Lou Retton was going to land on first. They could have called which side of the issue Al Gore would come down on.

Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports that Alex Carcamo is one of the free agents participating in the Sixers' mini-camp. Carcamo's story is like a lot of NBA hopefulls: junior college, small Division 1 school, overseas pro leagues. Alex Carcamo gets a little more attention than the other free agents these days because of who he's played against.

Carcamo played in China's pro league against 7-5 center Yao Ming.

Carcamo averaged 32 points for Shenzhen, his Chinese team, and scored 49 and 36 points in two games against Yao's Shanghai Sharks, losing both.

Yao averaged 32.4 points and 19 rebounds per game for the Sharks during the season and increased those numbers to 41 and 21 during the Chineese championship playoff series.

"I think he's a phenomenal player," Carcamo said. "You can't teach athleticism, and for 7-5, he's athletic. He passes well out of double teams; he's a finesse player right now, but he works hard.

"I think he'll be a great player as long as somebody works with him. Not too many coaches work with big men these days. It's as if, once they're in the league, they're expected to know the fundamentals. The league in China is good and competitive, but a lot of the coaches there don't work with the big men. Ming is going off his athleticism right now."

"Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning are two of the best centers in the NBA, and Ming is more skilled than they are," Carcamo said. "He just needs body weight. You can't teach Shaq to shoot 15-footers smoothly. They say Yao doesn't play inside, but he can play to the basket, can play good defense, can block shots."

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo is 98 percent sure that star point guard Marcus Taylor is heading to the NBA, Jack Ebling of the Lanseng State Journal is reporting.

"I thought that all along,'' Izzo said in a media briefing Tuesday at Breslin Center. "Now, I'm 98 percent sure he's going to follow his dream. I've talked to Marcus' dad three or four times about it. But I really think this is Marcus' decision.''

Some say that Taylor would not be able to return to Michigan State University due to his academic standings, a rumor which Izzo was quick to halt.

"Is he mature enough to go? Yes,'' Izzo said. "Is he stable enough to go? Yes. That only leaves the question of whether he's good enough to go. And I've seen guys jump from nowhere to No. 7 based on what happens in Chicago.''

The Rockets will have the 38th pick of the draft, unless they don't.
Up to seven days before the draft, the Rockets can switch second-round picks with Miami, taking the 38th pick and sending the 53rd pick to the Heat as part of the Hakeem Olajuwon sign-and-trade deal with Toronto. The only reason to wait is to allow the Heat time to consider rewarding the Rockets for staying where they are.

But the pick is a touch better than it sounds. If the Rockets claim the 38th pick of the draft, the player they choose will be the 37th taken.

For what it's worth, the NBA will call the first pick in the second round the No. 30 pick overall. It is not. It is the No. 29 pick. Because Minnesota was stripped of its first-round choice after of its secret Joe Smith deal, the draft will jump from pick No. 28 (Sacramento) to No. 30 (Chicago).

Let the Rockets have their fun. After their dreary season, they were entitled to enjoy Yao Ming week. The buzz was about them again, and as loony as it might have seemed to general manager Carroll Dawson and his staff, the rest of the organization loved the spotlight.

But the time will come -- and probably faster than they would like -- when they will have to look past the courtship, wedding day and honeymoon and consider the marriage.

Yao Mania has been an unexpected and welcome diversion. The Rockets have enjoyed the ride so much that on Friday, chief operating officer George Postolos called a staff meeting to talk about their windfall. While careful not to declare Yao the team's one and only, the mood was decidedly triumphant.

The Rockets grew accustomed to their mid-'90s most-favored-nation status. They were crestfallen when they fell from beloved to barely noticed. Then last Sunday, the switch was flipped back on. They could not help but enjoy becoming the show again.

Memphis will work out University of Memphis (sensing a theme here?) product Dejuan Wagner today, the 6-3 freshman scoring machine will not have to travel far for his workout at Rhodes College.

Joining Wagner will be guard Predrag Savovic, a Yugoslavian native who averaged 20.3 points as a senior at Hawaii, and guard J.R. Bremer who averaged 24.6 points for St. Bonaventure.

"Good shooters. (Savovic) is dead-eye," said Grizzlies director of player personnel Tony Barone. "It should be a great workout."

Although the Orlando Magic's search for help in the NBA draft on June 26 has focused primarily thus far on power forwards, there was an exception to that Thursday morning at the RDV Sportsplex in Maitland.

Teddy Dupay, the 5-foot-11 guard who was declared ineligible last September for his senior season at Florida because of a gambling investigation on campus, was among four players the Magic brought in for workouts. Dupay played for Phoenix in the financially strapped ABA after leaving school and moved on from there to Venezuela, where he said it was not uncommon for him to play six games a week.

"It's been an unbelievable year for me," he said. "But I have to say right now that I couldn't be in a better position. I'm in shape. I have my mind in the right direction."

Dupay claimed his weight has dropped to 185 pounds and his body fat to 5 percent. And he shrugged off criticism that his lack of height and his offensive-minded reputation -- he's the leading scorer in Florida high-school basketball history with 3,744 points -- will be held against him.

"Physically and defensively, I'm up to par," he said.

Magic general manager John Gabriel said Dupay was comparable in toughness and style of play to Chris Corchiani, who spent two seasons with them in the early '90s and who held the state career scoring record until Dupay came along. Dupay never averaged more than 13.4 points a game in any of his three seasons with the Gators, but his ability to shoot from 3-point range could be valuable even if Pat Garrity and Troy Hudson don't sign elsewhere.

"We need players who can shoot the ball," Gabriel said. "And Dupay can do that."

MOVING OUT?

If Dupay gets a chance to be on the Magic's training-camp roster, it will likely have to be as a free agent. He is not rated as first-round draft pick material, and the Magic do not own a pick in the second round.

Gabriel is not even ruling out the chance of the Magic, who have had at least one first-round pick every year of their existence except in 1999, trading away the 18th overall selection and making no additions to their roster on draft night.

"We'll explore possibilities to move ourselves up or even move out of the draft, if we have to, to improve our team because we want to win now," he said.

Amare Stoudamire, the 6-9 forward who has attended six different high schools, is expected to be gone before the Magic are scheduled to pick. Stoudamire, 19, may be more physically mature than most draft prospects at his position who have college experience, including Dan Gadzuric of UCLA and Ryan Humphrey of Notre Dame.

NICK TO MIAMI?

Nick Anderson could be headed to his third different team in four years after spending 10 consecutive seasons with the Magic. Jerry West, who was recently hired as the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies, is reportedly trying to work a trade that would send Anderson and Stromile Swift to the Miami Heat for Eddie Jones, whom West knows from when they were with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Anderson, who played two seasons in Sacramento before being traded to Memphis, earned more than $5.4 million despite getting in only 15 games for the Grizzlies. Of his 76 field-goal attempts, 48 of them were from 3-point range.

He is entering the final season of the six-year, $32 million contract he signed while still with the Magic.