With two months of the NBA season in the books, it looks like a three-man race among LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade for rookie of the year.

All three have brought improvement to their teams' won-lost records while performing consistently, helping make the draft class of 2003 one of the best the league has had in quite some time.

A case can be made for each:

_ James: One of only two players in the entire league (the other is Boston's Paul Pierce) averaging at least 20 points, six rebounds and six assists; he has been producing at an eye-opening clip since the Cavs traded away Ricky Davis. In Cleveland's last 11 games before this weekend, James eclipsed 30 points five times and failed to reach 20 just twice (scoring 17 and 18). The biggest knock against James is that he hasn't made the Cavaliers substantially better. The Cavaliers are 10-22 after 32 games, an improvement of only four victories from this time a year ago.

_ Anthony: Has reached double figures in points in all but one of Denver's first 32 games, scoring a season-high 37 the day after Christmas against the Houston Rockets. Nobody expected Denver to be a winning team, much less in playoff contention, but Anthony has helped lead the Nuggets to a record of 19-13 _ a 12-victory improvement over where they were a year ago. Anthony's sub-40 percent shooting percentage can be forgiven if he continues to help Denver win nearly two-thirds of its games.

_ Wade: The No. 4 overall pick in the draft reached 30 points twice last month and scored in double figures in every game but one in December, helping the Heat win eight of their 15 games _ Miami's first month with a winning record since February 2002. Based on comparisons to one year ago, Wade has helped his team the least. Miami entered the weekend with a record of 13-19, only a one game improvement over a year ago.

Other notable items concerning this year's rookie class:

_ Darko Milicic of Detroit, the No. 2 overall selection, has scored a total of five points while appearing in only 10 games.

_ Kyle Korver of Philadelphia, the 51st overall pick, had made the same number of 3-pointers (30) as teammate Allen Iverson.

_ Josh Howard of Dallas, the final first round selection (29th overall), has become a key part of coach Don Nelson's main six-player rotation.

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TRADE BLAZERS:@ Portland Trail Blazers general manager John Nash gets a lot of calls from teams inquiring about Rasheed Wallace, though he hasn't heard the right words from any of those potential trading partners.

``Oh, he is in demand. There are a lot of teams who would love to have him on their roster because of his talent, but they don't want to give up what we would view as comparable talent,'' Nash said.

Nash has been given the tough task of shaking up the Trail Blazers, disassembling a large portion of the roster and ridding the franchise of players with questionable character.

Wallace's contract expires at the end of this season, and his nearly $18 million salary will come off somebody's cap _ maybe Portland's, maybe someone else's.

One thing is all but certain: Nash won't take on any lucrative long-term contracts in return.

``He is doubly attractive because he is a talent who can help teams win now and get over the top, or he can also give tremendous salary cap relief,'' Nash said. ``So we may be the beneficiary of that salary cap relief if we are not the beneficiaries of him getting us into the playoffs.

``People feel as if we have to trade him. The answer is `No, we don't.' He may be more valuable to us by not trading him.''

Portland had the NBA's highest payroll last season, but relief is on the horizon if Nash sticks with his plan.

``We have 14 players on the roster now. Eleven have contracts of two years or less, so in short order we are going to be able to change the face of this franchise, but it may not be the results of trades as much as choosing not to renew contracts and going in a different direction.

``We are going to cut our payroll from $105 million last year to about $82 million this year to about $53 (million) next. Two years from now, we are going to be a player in free agency if we choose not to abandon this course.''

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GRAB BAG:@ New Jersey Nets center Mikki Moore owns three Burmese albino pythons (12, 10 and 9 feet) and three baby alligators. ``The only reason I have those pets is because you can leave them,'' Moore said. ``The snakes don't have to eat for a whole three months. The only thing they need is water.'' Moore keeps the pets in at Atlanta condo with the assistance of a pet-shop owner. ... After Boston made the Ricky Davis trade with Cleveland last month, Celtics coach Jim O'Brien was abrupt with the media and quickly left the FleetCenter. While backing up his Cadillac Escalade, he bumped into an Acura and left a note on the car's windshield. He later learned Celtics boss Danny Ainge owned the Acura. ``Just tell me,'' Ainge asked O'Brien. ``Did you do it on purpose?''