NEW YORK -- Is a non-scoring role player worth $93 million?

	Brian Grant didn't want to play center in Portland. Now he's playing center in Miami.

The Miami Heat is about to find out.

Pat Riley and Co. spent that much money to bring in Brian Grant, in a sign-and-trade with Portland last summer. Don't get us wrong. Grant hustles, gets rebounds and should bring energy to the Heat. However, his career history says, he needs to play with stars and is at his best as a part of a supporting cast.

But with Alonzo Mourning out for the season with a kidney ailment, Grant is the best big man Miami has and clearly will have to be more of a leading man if the Heat wants to make the playoffs.

Indeed, Grant has much to prove this season, along with a host of other NBA players, including Allen Iverson, Isaiah Rider, Shawn Kemp, Vin Baker, Marcus Camby and yes, even Sean Elliott.

Grant never liked playing center in Portland. Now he goes to a team that will need him to man the middle for significant minutes. Funny how things worked out.

"I've played center before," he said. "Sometimes, I'll have an advantage because of my quickness. I can shoot over centers. But when you're talking about going up against Shaq or big guys like that, we'll be at a disadvantage."

We, of course, being the Heat and the entire Eastern Conference.

"Out here, I'm gonna run a lot more," Grant said. "The big guys are more like perimeter men. So it's been an adjustment for me, chasing those guys around. In the East, you've got guys like John Amaechi and Marcus Camby, who can run. Also, Keith Van Horn. The East used to be the slow-down, bang 'em up conference. So I won't get beaten down by the height and the power."

The expectations? Maybe.

"I need to have my confidence," Grant said. "When you go from 35 minutes a game to 19-20, like what happened to me last season, then it's tough to have confidence. If I have it, I can shoot, I can rebound. If don't have it, then it's tough for me."

Meanwhile, Iverson needs to prove that he can co-exist with Larry Brown, once and for all. After back-to-back appearances in the second round, this might be the best chance for the Sixers to get to an NBA Finals.

"The thing about Philly that you have to be impressed with is that they rebound, they defend, and they always play hard," said Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, whose team opens with the Sixers in New York Tuesday. "They're gonna be tough for a lot of teams to handle."

Unless Iverson continues to be a one-man distraction. Last season, he was expected to lead. Yet he continued to blow off team functions and show up late for practices and games. The recent furor caused by his rap CD, 40 Bars, showed he still hasn't made the choice of acting like a professional. If he ever does, look out.

"After Shaq, who's the most difficult cover in the league today, the second-toughest is Iverson," Orlando's Doc Rivers said. "He's almost impossible to start. He's a jet."

With Brown looking to get rid of him, Iverson almost jetted his way out of town over the summer. But with Speedy Claxton suffering a season-ending knee injury, the Sixers are resigned to going with Iverson for the season. Maybe they were expecting far too much, but they were hopeful that Claxton could develop quickly enough to where they could move Iverson, once and for all.

	Grant

	Williams

	Iverson

Jason Williams is another big-name playmaker who needs to have a solid season. He'll start out on the suspended list for the first five games -- a result of violating the league's drug policy.

"How much we improve will depend on how much Jason improves," said Kings coach Rick Adelman. Williams needs improvement in so many areas, but among the leading ones: defense, assist-to-turnover ratio, cutting down on turnovers and taking fewer 3-pointers.

Rider, checkered history and all, is the new small forward for the defending champion Lakers. It's a huge gamble on L.A.'s part. Rider has been nothing but trouble in his seven NBA seasons, including last season's disaster in Atlanta, but he's also not really suited for the triangle offense. Playing with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, he won't be able to work in his favorite low-post areas. But he's also been something of a distraction in the preseason, testing teammates' patience with his tardiness and selfishness. If Rider doesn't work out, the Lakers will have nothing at small forward to replace Glen Rice, and will have to press backup Rick Fox or Robert Horry into the starting lineup.

Horace Grant is another Laker with something to prove. Namely, can he be the answer to the Lakers' Achilles heel. Last season, they were exposed time and again at the "four" when they had to defend big, physical scoring power forwards like Rasheed Wallace, Tim Duncan and Chris Webber. A.C. Green and Horry were too light. At 35, can Grant do the job on defense, while giving the Lakers the shooting range and consistency they never got from Green?

Up in Portland, Kemp was brought in to help get the Blazers past the Lakers. He's no longer the whale he resembled in Cleveland, where he played at 317 pounds. He's dropped down to 285. But he's still a long ways from being in the kind of shape he was in Seattle when he helped the Sonics to the 1996 Finals. The conventional wisdom is that since Kemp has more to play for now, he'll do a better job applying himself. If he manages himself into the No. 1 scoring role up front, it will be interesting to see how Wallace reacts. Wallace feels he needs to be featured.

Another player coming off a weight problem and with as much to prove as Kemp is Vin Baker. He spent the last two seasons woefully out of shape and almost was sent to the Knicks in the Patrick Ewing deal that collapsed in late-August.

Once an All-Star, Baker got fat, battled depression, heard widespread rumors about a drinking problem, and was benched in fourth quarters. At times he didn't want the ball in the post in pressure spots, at other times he shot Shaq-like from the foul line. He says he's happy being back to his old power forward spot, but the Sonics will only be happy with him if they start getting the production they paid $86 million for.

With Ewing starting in the middle for the Sonics now, there's a void in New York. Will Camby step in and fill it, or continue to make excuses, go down to knee injuries and flounder. Camby is long removed from the 1999 playoff run, when he dominated several games against Atlanta and Indiana and helped the Knicks get to the Finals.

Then he went from X-factor to No Factor. Last season, Camby suffered from more knee woes and ended up playing a career-low 59 games. Camby's conference finals production against the Pacers last spring: 21 minutes per game, 3.3 points on 28 percent shooting. For someone who was expected, in some quarters, to succeed Ewing, he's got a long way to go.

Another Eastern Conference forward with a long history of injuries is the Nets' Van Horn. Drafted right after Tim Duncan, he's been a major disappointment for the Nets and will start the season rehabbing for yet another leg injury. Once again, the Nets are looking for Van Horn to start asserting himself -- if he can stay on the floor.

What's Elliott doing on this list? He made a heroic and historic return from a kidney transplant late last season. If there's one thing he needs to prove, it is that he can return to his 1999 form, when he helped the Spurs to their first title. During the preseason, the Spurs felt he was the "old Sean," attacking the basket and playing aggressive defense.

If there's one guy on this list who we feel good about proving the doubters wrong, we'll take Elliott, no questions asked.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.