Everyone wants to be wanted.

Third-year guard Trajan Langdon is not wanted by the Cavaliers. Being paid $1.6 million is plenty of money to take some of the sting out of a downtrodden situation, but . . .

"This is difficult knowing that you are in a place where you have no future, a place where you are not wanted," said Langdon. "But I look at it this way - I am in the NBA, which is a dream come true for me.

"That is why I work as hard as I do."

Langdon, 25, has gone from being highly coveted to being cast overboard in 2? years. He has gone from someone who was the 11th pick of the 1999 draft to someone who was told at the start of this season that the option year of his contract would not be picked up.

In real estate, it is location, location and location. The same can be said for many of the players in the NBA.

Langdon, a 6-3 guard who was the best shooter of the 1999 draft and who, along with Wesley Person, is the best shooter on the Cavaliers, is not playing in the right system.

For Langdon to succeed in the NBA, he needs a system that sets up plenty of picks to get him loose for 20-foot jumpers.

"I look at the NBA as a league made up of two kinds of players," said Langdon, who holds a degree in mathematics from Duke. "Those who can go anywhere and play and those who have to be in the right situation. Right now, I am not in a good situation.

"There is no question in my mind that I can play in this league, but I have to be in the right system."

The NBA has had numerous players who bounced around before settling into the spot most suited for them. "Look at guys like Steve Kerr, Dell Curry, Jeff Hornacek and Hersey Hawkins," Langdon said. "All of them could shoot and all of them moved around until they got into the right situation."

Cavs General Manager Jim Paxson, who took severe criticism for using the 11th pick on Langdon, agrees Langdon has the ability to succeed somewhere.

"We're trying to develop a more athletic team, here, though," said Paxson. "Trajan can play somewhere. He can shoot and he's got toughness."

Langdon is aware that many in the media and many fans have labeled him a bust.

"For anyone saying I am a bust," he said, "that is their opinion. I am not concerned with that.

"A lot of that has to do with being picked 11th in the draft. I did not expect to be picked 11th. I figured I would go in the low teens to the mid-20s. The Cavaliers saw something they liked."

Now they see something they don't like. Paxson is trying to move Langdon before next month's trading deadline.

"He said on the day he told me that my option would not be picked up that he would try to trade me to a team where I would be used," Langdon said. "I like it here, but I do want to be where I get the chance to play."