After considering contract proposals from several suitors, free-agent Karl Malone has narrowed the list of NBA franchises with which he will consider signing, his agent said Saturday night.

Evidently, all are teams from the league's Western Conference.

Agent Dwight Manley, however, would neither identify those clubs nor reveal the exact number of possible destinations that remain for The Mailman.

"Whether it's three or five or four," Manley said, "it's down to a few teams."

The Los Angeles Lakers, the Jazz, San Antonio and Dallas apparently are still in the running, though it seems the likelihood of Malone leaving Utah after 18 seasons here is growing stronger and stronger by the day.