Miller: Malone staying put

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller wants it made clear: Karl Malone, a.k.a. The Mailman, will continue to make the majority of his deliveries at the Delta Center. Miller stood outside the Jazz dressing room after Utah's 112-88 victory over Seattle on Wednesday, emphasizing that brief trade talks last summer involving superstar forward Karl Malone are "dead in the water." Back in June, Miller said Malone expressed concern the Jazz might not be competitive enough to satisfy his will to win. To appease the perennial All-Star, team officials briefly considered trading Malone to the Dallas Mavericks. The deal never took flight, Miller said, because Dallas would only discuss trading one player for Malone. He wouldn't disclose names, but the talks reportedly centered on Juwan Howard. "There was only one player they wanted to give up, and that player had zero attraction for us," Miller said. "Even if it did work economically, which I'm not sure it would have, there needed to be some substance there. We're not going to trade a guy like Karl for nothing." The talks lasted only a few days, never gaining momentum. Miller recalled them as "only a little hiccup" among dozens of trade propositions that are routinely floated among teams each offseason. When word of the situation finally broke Tuesday, Miller said he immediately called Jazz vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor to see if there was a new round of talks. "It was surprising that it came up this long after," Miller said. "In this business there are very few secrets. The surprising part to me is that, if it were that big, that the secret lasted so long." -- Associated Press

The Dallas Mavericks say they were caught off guard Tuesday by an ESPN The Magazine report that they were making an effort to acquire Karl Malone from the Utah Jazz in a three-team scenario that also would involve the Denver Nuggets.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told Dallas-area reporters that he was surprised by a column written by ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that ran on ESPN.com. The story said the team was making a concerted effort to acquire Malone, 38, for Juwan Howard.

It said that when Utah didn't bite on the Howard deal, Dallas was presented with several three-team scenarios the Jazz would accept, Bucher reported, one of which was to deliver Raef LaFrentz from Denver rather than Howard.

Cuban told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he received a "what if" telephone call from Jazz management this summer, painting a scenario in which Malone would be traded to the Mavericks. On Tuesday, Cuban told the newspaper the trade won't take place.

"It was a two-second conversation," Cuban told the Star-Telegram. "It was like, 'Under the right circumstances, if it was the right deal, would you have an interest in Karl?'

"Well, yeah, under the right circumstances, under the right deal, I'll have an interest in Kobe (Bryant), Shaq (O'Neal). Who are you going to say no about?"

The rumors also swirled around New York on Tuesday, when the Rocky Mountain News reported: "LaFrentz to the Knicks. Nuggets get swingman Latrell Sprewell."

Other rumors involved injured Nuggets power forward Antonio McDyess.

But Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said, "I'm not calling anybody trying to trade Raef. He's one of the last guys I'm trying to trade."

Malone has frequently asked to be traded, often in an attempt to get his contract renegotiated. Cuban believes that's how this all got started.

"I just think that Karl said something, and it probably won't be the first time he's asked to be traded," Cuban told the newspaper. "So they went through the process and said, 'OK, we asked some teams, and we couldn't get the deal we wanted.'

"But the fact that it took so long to get out (to the public) was probably the biggest surprise. That was this summer when this came up."

LaFrentz is not surprised his name is beginning to surface in trade rumors. He expects it to continue, he told the Rocky Mountain News.

"If there's anything to any of these rumors, I'll be getting a phone call from (agent) Mike (Higgins)," said LaFrentz, who had yet to hear from his agent. "I won't hear anything from the Nuggets. They are not going to be like, 'Hey, we're thinking about trading you.' Most teams don't (tell their players about trade talks)."

LaFrentz becomes a restricted free agent July 1.