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Of the first 14 teams reached by ESPN.com in an anonymous survey, six said they expect to see Jason Collins in the NBA next season in the wake of his revelation Monday that he is gay.

The other eight teams that expressed some measure of doubt all cited Collins' age and corresponding questions about his ability to make a productive on-court contribution as the overriding reason he wouldn't be able to find a job for his 13th season, not because of fallout from the announcement.

Although one Eastern Conference executive acknowledged that it's inevitable that Collins' newfound status as the first active player in North American team sports to come out as gay "would have to be discussed" internally by any team considering him, those eight teams expressing a degree of skepticism about Collins' hopes of finding future employment were unanimous in saying the decision would be overwhelmingly tied to his playing ability.

"The reality," said one Western Conference executive, "is that he's been an end-of-the-roster kind of player for the last couple years."

Sources close to the situation said that the Washington Wizards, who acquired Collins in February in a trade with Boston, don't have the 7-footer as a free-agent priority as they head into the offseason but have interest in bringing him back depending on how their 2013-14 roster unfolds.

Three teams consulted in ESPN.com's anonymous survey strongly expressed the belief that Collins will be able to secure a one-year contract in 2013-14 despite the fact that he has been relegated to end-of-the-bench duty for the past five seasons and hasn't averaged more than 15 minutes per game since 2007-08.

An executive from one of those three teams said: "[Collins] is such a good person and teammate. I still think organizations will like having him around for situational play and leadership."

Said an executive from another organization: "I think there's a 100 percent chance he'll be back in the league ... because he can still play."

Yet another front-office executive added that because Collins keeps himself in better shape physically now than he did in his 20s, coupled with the idea that this summer's projected crop for free-agent centers isn't the deepest, it will help his cause tremendously.

The Celtics, according to NBA front-office sources, tried everything they could in February to keep Collins from being included in the trade they made to bring Jordan Crawford to Boston on deadline day. Washington wanted Collins, but Boston tried to include Chris Wilcox instead, only to be foiled by Wilcox's ability to block the deal thanks to the one-year contract he possess and his upcoming free-agent status.

As for the eight teams casting doubt on Collins' chances, their concerns were almost unanimous.

Said one veteran general manager: "I don't think he was going to be in the league next season no matter what. I don't think [sexual orientation] is the issue. I think 'Can he still play?' is the issue."

"The chances are slim," another team executive said. "Only because of skill."

We have had Marc Stein on the show. We have done rapid fire on the show.

But somehow this is the first time we have done rapid fire with Marc Stein. He got himself on rapid fire probation with one incredibly un-rapid answer, but all in all, of course he shone. Week 23 power rankings, Sacramento vs. Seattle, L.A.'s team, Knicks or Celtics, Derrick Rose, the Bobcats' rebuild ... thanks to all that speed, that's about a third of what we covered.

The Atlanta Hawks inched closer to Thursday's 3 p.m. trade deadline more determined than ever to trade Josh Smith, according to sources with knowledge of the Hawks' thinking.

They still have to find a suitable trade partner, though.

The consistent word circulating in front-office circles late Wednesday was that Atlanta has yet to find a deal it likes for Smith in a down market despite the determined pursuit of the Brooklyn Nets and consistent (but conditional) interest from Milwaukee and Boston.

The Nets, sources say, will continue Thursday to search for a third team to help facilitate a deal for Smith, since Atlanta has made it clear that it wants no part of Kris Humphries.

Milwaukee would appear to be the most likely destination for Smith entering deadline day, but it remains to seen whether the Bucks will ultimately be willing to part with guard Monta Ellis, whom Atlanta has targeted as the primary player it wants from them.

As for Boston: Including Paul Pierce or Rajon Rondo in any deal with the Hawks is presumed to be the only way for the Celtics to land Smith, which is problematic for the Celts for a number of reasons. Focusing on just two of them: (1) Trading Pierce somewhere he doesn't want to go isn't nearly as easy as it sounds given what PP's stature is in his city and with that franchise; (2) Boston's chances of getting Atlanta's unrestricted free agent-to-be to sign for the long term there would almost certainly be damaged if Rondo, one of Smith's best friends, weren't still there to team up with him.

As of late Wednesday, sources close to the situation said Atlanta hadn't yet found a deal it particularly liked and was still holding out hope that offers would improve or that previously uninterested teams, such as Houston, would change their minds in the final hours of trade season.

Yet sources stressed that the Hawks do remain eager to part with Smith and went into Thursday expecting to move him by day's end to the team offering the best deal that won't hurt their long-term financial flexibility. Atlanta, of course, is determined not to let any trade it makes Thursday affect its planned pursuit of Dwight Howard in free agency in July.

The Hawks, as a result, figure to attract more attention than anyone else on deadline day. Especially with most rival teams increasingly expecting the Clippers and Jazz to stand pat no matter how much we've talked about Eric Bledsoe, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson possibly moving.

Similar pessimism about Phoenix -- long considered one of the teams expected to be busy leading up to the 2012 deadline -- moving center Marcin Gortat was also in abundance Wednesday.

The Milwaukee Bucks continue to discuss Josh Smith trade scenarios with the Atlanta Hawks in advance of Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

But those discussions, sources say, also serve as a strong indication of the rising likelihood that Brandon Jennings will not be moved this week.

ESPN.com reported Tuesday that Monta Ellis is the primary player Atlanta is targeting in its discussion with Milwaukee. Sources say that the Hawks, furthermore, want Milwaukee to add at least one expiring contract to the equation with Ellis and possibly take on some salary.

ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard, meanwhile, reported Wednesday morning on “SportsCenter” that Smith would be interested in playing with both Jennings and Ellis if he wound up in Milwaukee, leading the Bucks to try Wednesday to make the deal without surrendering Ellis.

Yet amid all of those talks, sources say, Jennings has moved alongside Larry Sanders and John Henson on the Bucks’ list of near-untouchables. This is despite Jennings’ widely presumed desire to leave Milwaukee in free agency this summer after failing to seal a contract extension in October like fellow point guards Jrue Holiday, Steph Curry and Ty Lawson and then changing agents earlier this month.

The Dallas Mavericks were at the forefront of the list of teams hoping that the Bucks would make Jennings available this week, but Milwaukee appears intent on taking its chances in the offseason, knowing that Jennings will be a restricted free agent and thus unable to leave town unless the Bucks decline to match an offer sheet he receives.

The Mavericks, sources say, have been pessimistic from the start about their ability to trade for Jennings before the deadline anyway. They know he’s the closest thing to a face of the franchise for the Bucks in the wake of Andrew Bogut’s departure at the 2012 trade deadline, meaning Milwaukee would likely set a high bar for teams inquiring about the fourth-year point guard.

The latest word on veteran center Samuel Dalembert, meanwhile, is that the Bucks are actually more inclined to keep him than move him now in the wake of Dalembert's fine fill-in work since Sanders was sidelined by a back injury. For much of the season -- largely when he was barely playing under Scott Skiles -- Dalembert was regarded as one of the players most likely to be traded this season.

It didn't take long, coming out of All-Star Weekend, from the trade chatter to crank back up again.

Some fresh dribbles of that chatter follow in the lead-up to the NBA’s 3 p.m ET Thursday trade deadline:

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The Atlanta Hawks have convinced numerous teams that they're definitely trading Josh Smith this week, largely because they see the unpredictable lefty as a virtual lock to leave them in free agency this summer.

So ...

Destinations?

One team close to the situation consulted Monday night predicted that the Nets would ultimately land Smith via a three-way trade after ESPN's Chris Broussard reported Feb. 11 that Smith is a prime Brooklyn Nets trade target.

Another team pinpointed the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks as the strongest contenders to win the Smith sweepstakes. The big worry for both of those teams, though, is whether they could really risk trading for Smith when convincing him to re-sign for the long term is likely to be a serious challenge in either city. Especially with Smith said to be angling for a max deal … and with nobody confusing the Suns or the Bucks with Mikhail Prokhorov's Nets.

Broussard, furthermore, tweeted early Tuesday that the Washington Wizards have made anyone on the roster available for Smith, apart from John Wall, Bradley Beal and Nene.

Which brings us to the Boston Celtics.

NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com on Monday that the Boston Celtics have, indeed, registered their interest on the Smith front, with the caveat that they also remain highly interested in the Clippers' Eric Bledsoe.

Yet a Boston deal for Smith, sources said, would almost certainly have to be built around Paul Pierce, because Kevin Garnett isn't waiving his no-trade clause to go to the Atlanta Hawks if he's not willing to waive it to go to Clipperland. And the prospect of Celtics front-office chief Danny Ainge exiling Pierce to the Hawks for Smith, after everything Pierce has done to restore the Celtics to glory over the past half-decade, is still hard to imagine.

At least for me.

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According to one theory in circulation on the personnel grapevine, Celtics officials could be moved this week to try to make the case to Garnett that waiving his no-trade provision to accept that long-rumored trade to the Los Angeles Clippers would be the best thing not only for himself but for the long-term health of the franchise. Combine that approach with the expected lobbying from the L.A. side by good buddy Chauncey Billups, as the theory goes, and maybe Garnett will ultimately relent and consent to a swap.

Have to add three follow-up caveats here, though:

1. After spending a solid 15 minutes in the same room with Garnett in Houston as part of ESPN Radio's All-Star Weekend team, I became convinced that KG isn't waiving that no-trade clause. For anyone or any team. My impression is that it's going to take more lobbying than anyone out there can muster.

2. Broussard reported late Monday night on "SportsCenter" that Billups has already warned the Clippers that Garnett's position appears to be firm … and that Garnett spelled out the exact same thing to Chris Paul last summer when Paul informed KG that the Clippers wanted to pursue him via trade.

3. Even if Garnett did wind up with the Clippers this week, after all the bluster against the idea, I still struggle to picture the Celtics telling Pierce that they're going to send him to the Hawks for the good of Boston's long-term health. The deal might make sense for Atlanta -- since Pierce's $5 million buyout for next season would extend the Hawks' window of flexibility and create a new set of options -- but it still looks like as an impossible sell in Boston.

I've always thought Rajon Rondo, not Pierce or Garnett, would be the first member of Boston's star trio to be dealt. There simply might not be a shake-up move available to the Celtics at this deadline now that Rondo has been lost to a season-ending knee injury.

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There's more on that subject.

The Clippers, according one source close to the situation, would not be willing to surrender both Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan to Boston even if Garnett was willing to waive his no-trade clause.

Is that posturing? An absolute stance?

We'll find out for sure between now and the deadline, but the source insisted that the Clippers feel that a Bledsoe-and-Jordan combo is too much to surrender for a 36-year-old who isn't sure how much longer he'll be playing.

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The consistent word out of Houston, incidentally, is that the Rockets -- long known to be Smith fans -- are far more likely to pursue J-Smoove in free agency than to try to trade for him this week.

The Rockets are expected to use their leftover salary-cap space from last summer to extract an extra draft pick from teams looking to shed salary for luxury-tax reasons right before the trade buzzer.

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Veterans who remain available in trade talks this week include San Antonio's DeJuan Blair, Cleveland's Omri Casspi, Charlotte's Ben Gordon, Brooklyn's Kris Humphries, Oklahoma City's Eric Maynor, Minnesota's Luke Ridnour, Phoenix's Sebastian Telfair and Washington's Jordan Crawford.

Orlando, meanwhile, continues to seek no less than a first-round pick for sharpshooter J.J. Redick, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in July.

RENO, Nev. -- The Memphis Grizzlies have not made an iron-clad decision about trading swingman Rudy Gay before the league's Feb. 21 buzzer for deals, according to NBA front-office sources.

The Grizzlies might trade him. But they might not.

The Toronto Raptors, by contrast, have definitively decided to make a real run at Gay.

The Raptors might not be able to swing a deal for him. But they'd love to.

Sources told ESPN.com this week that the Raptors -- who tried to make a play for Gay before the 2012 NBA draft -- remain seriously "interested" in the Grizzlies' leading scorer and are trying to assemble trade packages to bring the 26-year-old to Toronto after preliminary talks with Memphis.

Among the trade chips that the Raptors are believed to be dangling, in addition to draft considerations, are veteran point guard Jose Calderon (who has an expiring contract worth $10.6 million) and young big man Ed Davis.

Grantland's Zach Lowe reported last week that the Grizzlies had begun the process of letting various teams know that Gay would be available in the right deal before the annual February trade deadline. Sources consulted in Reno during the NBA's annual D-League Showcase have described the bulk of those discussions to date to be exploratory in nature, but Toronto, as part of that process, has let it be known to the Grizzlies that its desire to acquire Gay has not waned.

It was widely assumed around the league coming into the season that the Grizzlies' new ownership group, headed by majority owner Robert Pera and CEO Jason Levien, would look into moving Gay to lessen Memphis' luxury-tax obligations after this season and coming seasons.

But the Grizzlies, with their three top players finally all healthy and playing in unison after two player runs impacted by health matters, got off to a rousing 14-3 start and, despite fading slightly to 22-10, are generally regarded as a team capable of winning the ever-competitive Western Conference.

That has led some rival teams to project that the Grizzlies, as one GM in Reno put in Tuesday, could "wait until the summer" before deciding whether they're indeed prepared to break up the Zach Randolph-Marc Gasol-Gay trio.

Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday that the Phoenix Suns, like the Raptors, have let the Grizzlies know that they are prepared to trade for Gay by packaging swingman Jared Dudley with future first-round picks. The Memphis Commercial Appeal subsequently reported that the Sacramento Kings are also among the teams to engage the Grizzlies in preliminary Gay talks, with CBSSports.com and the Contra Costa Times reporting that similar discussions between Memphis and Golden State quickly ended when it became apparent that the Warriors would have to include the contract of Richard Jefferson to make the salary-cap math work.

The Raptors, meanwhile, tried to trade for Gay six months ago, offering up various packages headlined by the No. 8 pick in the draft (eventually used on Terrence Ross) and Calderon. The Grizzlies, still owned by Michael Heisley at the time, passed.

Word is that the Grizzlies' new regime is adamant that it won't merely try to dump salary by dealing Gay in-season if it severely weakens their team in the process. Gay, averaging a team-high 17.8 points per game but shooting a career-low 40.8 percent from the floor, is earning $16.4 million in 2012-13 and is scheduled to earn $17.8 million and $19.3 million in the following two seasons.

Said another GM: "I think keeping Gay is still on the table for them, too."

Soccer-loving NBA fans know exactly what it means when you hear soccer folks talking about an "international break."

NBA fans who aren't familiar with the term will start to hear it more and more as we inch toward 2017.

FIBA announced this week that its quadrennial World Championship, which starting in 2014 will be known as the FIBA Basketball World Cup, will skip its 2018 turn and move to 2019 to take the event "out of the shadow" of soccer's World Cup. As part of the shift, FIBA says the World Cup field is expanding from 24 teams to a record 32 countries and that seven of the 12 nations in the 2020 Olympics will qualify -- along with the host nation of '20 Games -- based on World Cup results.

Yet one of the more interesting changes to the international basketball calendar involves the introduction of six planned qualifying windows for the 2019 World Cup that will be staged in November 2017, February 2018, June 2018, September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019. You'll notice, as you re-read that sentence, that four of those six windows take place at the same time that the NBA schedule calls for NBA players to play NBA games.

And that's where the concept of an international break comes in.

In world soccer, as seen just this week in fact, leagues all over the planet take what amounts to a school holiday during such qualifying windows to let players scatter across the globe to return to their national teams. The U.S. men's national soccer team, for example, just recalled 20 players from 10 different leagues worldwide to form the squad that ducked in and out of Russia to come away with a fortuitous 2-2 draw.

The notion of an international break in the NBA, however, is a complete non-starter. Even at this early juncture, one source familiar with the NBA's long-range thinking told ESPN.com that building breaks into the NBA's regular-season schedule is simply "not being considered." Not now and not later.

Which means that NBA players from a variety of countries -- as well as the NBA coaches who moonlight with national teams all over the world in the offseason -- will almost certainly miss out on the majority of games that count when it comes to qualifying for the new World Cup.

How big a deal is that? Not that massive, realistically, when viewed through a strictly American prism. USA Basketball will continue to field teams that qualify for every major tournament even if it has to trot out a pack of All-Stars from the D-League for most of the qualifying games starting in November 2017. As one longtime European coach told ESPN.com this week: "There's no way FIBA would go to a system that hurts the big countries. They want the stars playing in the biggest tournaments."

Yet the soccer fan in me can't wait to see how this plays out in so many other areas. What happens to the smaller countries like, say, Venezuela or Israel or Switzerland that lean on a Greivis Vasquez or Omri Casspi or Thabo Sefolosha to spearhead their efforts to qualify for major events? What happens to a country like Georgia when it loses access in qualifying not only to star center Zaza Pachulia but also coach Igor Kokoskov, whom the Georgians currently borrow from the bench of the Phoenix Suns but who likely won’t be able to do that sort of moonlighting in-season? Or is a 32-team World Cup so bloated that nations blessed with NBA players, however few they produce, won’t see their qualifying hopes drastically dented by limited NBA involvement?

FIBA officials are increasingly optimistic that a number of top leagues in Europe will re-institute international breaks for qualifying to their schedules, like we saw before the wave of international players in the NBA over the past decade-plus that largely prompted FIBA to move all men's senior events to the summer in the first place in hopes of increasing the likelihood of NBA participation. But then it’s hard to imagine that top national-team coaches from last summer's Olympics, such as Russia's David Blatt or Spain's Sergio Scariolo, will opt to keep coaching internationally at the expense of club jobs that are far more lucrative once national teams need their services several times a year. On the flip side, looking strictly through our U.S. goggles again, it’s conceivable that the likely return of international breaks in Europe would enable USAB to call in top Americans playing abroad for a previously unforeseen opportunity to represent their country in a qualifying window or two.

Because these changes are still nearly five years off, it's too soon to know precisely how USAB will approach the new qualifying setup. Those are way-down-the-road discussions for USAB chairman Jerry Colangelo, who faces the slightly more pressing matter of choosing Mike Krzyzewski's successor as coach to lead the 2014 team into Spain for the Worlds.

What we do know at this juncture is that FIBA forged ahead with the new plan convinced that there were too many benefits for the overall health of the world game -- starting with the move of the World Cup to odd years away from head-to-head competition with the soccer equivalent -- to dwell on what will be lost if NBA players and coaches are mostly unavailable for qualifying games.

Representatives from the sport's world governing body relish the notion that its member nations will get to regularly host qualifying games starting in 2017 as part of home-and-away group play as seen in soccer after years of seeing international tournaments limited to single-venue events that are jammed into the summertime.

(Example No. 1: Team USA is scheduled to play no fewer than six home and two away qualifiers in advance of the 2019 World Cup. The Americans haven't played a senior men's national team game on home soil that meant anything since the horrors of that sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis.)

FIBA is also hoping that the new schedule, which reduces the year-to-year offseason workload for NBA players thanks to the changes in qualifying and the move to stage de-emphasized events like Eurobasket and the FIBA Americas championship once every four years instead of every two years, will start to address the concerns of NBA teams concerned about the extra wear and tear their players absorb while playing internationally.

(Example No. 2: Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, just to name one prominent international player, has played for Spain in one competition or another for seven straight summers dating to 2006. The new plan should result in at least one basketball-free summer for the sport's top national teams every four years.)

Yet it’s worth remembering that these changes are all tied into FIBA’s mission to elevate the status and novelty of the World Cup and make it a truly marquee event. An event, not coincidentally, in which the NBA is destined to hold a growing financial stake.

It also remains to be seen how long the NBA waits before making a renewed push to take another page from soccer’s blueprint and try to turn the Olympics into a 23-and-under event, as was proposed by NBA commissioner David Stern (and then quickly shot down) earlier this year.

With so many angles affecting so many basketball people over here, and with so much discussion and dissection to come, something tells me that lots of this stuff will sound a lot less foreign to the NBA masses by the time 2017 rolls around.

DALLAS -- You already know by now that Royce White is a candid young man.

If he’s proven anything in his first few weeks as a Houston Rockets rookie -- here and here, for example -- it’s that White’s willingness and openness in talking about his battles with mental illness are seemingly limitless.

So it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that White didn’t hold back Monday night when asked to assess his first taste of an NBA game: 23 bumpy minutes in the Rockets’ 123-104 exhibition loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

“I thought I played pretty bad,” White said.

The 21-year-old certainly looked somewhat shell-shocked during his first-half stint, starting 0-for-3 from the floor thanks partly to two hurried heaves to try to beat the shot clock, one of which got swatted and the other missing the rim completely.

Yet with one coast-to-coast drive in the second half for his first pro points, pulling in a rebound at one end and getting all the way to the other basket for a three-point play, White gave us a peek at the athleticism and all-around skills that convinced the Rockets to make him the 16th pick in the June draft no matter what special arrangements would be necessary to get White to their games.

There was also a nifty feed to Gary Forbes that, even without a scoring finish from Forbes, caught the eye because of the size of the 6-foor-8, 260-pounder leading the break.

“I felt a little more relaxed,” White said of the second-half response that enabled him to finish with seven points in 23 minutes.

The long-term travel arrangements, meanwhile, are still being hashed out. In this instance, after sitting out Houston’s first three exhibition games following his absence at the start of training camp, White traveled by chauffeured car from Houston after Sunday’s home game against San Antonio and arrived in Dallas shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday night.

Some nights, of course, traveling via driver or even on the fancy bus he’s looking to buy for the longer rides that demand sleep won’t be feasible. Choices will inevitably have to be made: Ask White to fly or scratch him from the lineup.

The Rockets, though, have yet to start circling games on the schedule that they expect White to miss. The planning, in conjunction with the league office and the NBA Players Association, hasn’t gotten that far quite yet. The Rockets, at this stage, simply say that they’re prepared to continuously work with White and his support group to help coordinate his travel.

Yet White wants to stress that he’s quite hands-on when it comes to the planning. Again: Not a surprise given the great lengths he’s gone to this month to try to explain some of the aspects of the generalized anxiety disorder which plagues him.

“I deal with different anxieties,” White said. “(Fear of) flying is the meat and potatoes of it, but it’s more than just flying. That’s why I have to be really involved in the planning, so everybody knows what I do need and what I don’t need.”

And for the record: White had a quick retort when one reporter (OK, it was me) asked him to assess what sort of physical drain could have been inflicted by the four-hour car ride down Interstate 45 to get to the site of his NBA debut in Big D.

“I think it took a lot less out of me than flying would have,” White said. “Physically sitting there has its effects ... but so does being on a plane.”

Important update to our weekend report regarding the prospect of a return to the Los Angeles Lakers for veteran guard Derek Fisher.

Sources briefed on the discussions told ESPN.com on Monday that Fisher has, indeed, been verified by the league office as eligible to re-sign with the Lakers since July 1, which runs counter to the widely held assumption that Fisher had to wait at least one year from the date that the Lakers dealt him to Houston in March before a reunion with Kobe Bryant would be permissible.

The NBA’s new labor agreement stipulates that a player traded and then waived by the team that acquired him can’t re-sign with his original team for one year or until the traded contract runs out -- whichever comes first. But in Fisher’s case, confusion surrounding his player option for the 2012-13 season led to the belief in some league circles that he had picked up the option before the Houston Rockets bought him out. In reality, sources confirm, Fisher was bought out by Houston before he was eligible to invoke the 2012-13 option, which means that his contract was deemed to have ended June 30, sending Fisher to full-fledged free agency on July 1.

So ...

Plenty of dominoes still have to fall before Fisher, who finished last season with Oklahoma City, actually winds up back at Staples Center in purple and gold. Fisher, for starters, will have to decide how long he’s willing to wait for the Lakers to open up a slot in their backcourt rotation for him. They currently have too many point guards and too high a payroll to sign him now, which account for two of the reasons that L.A. -- as ESPN.com reported Friday -- is shopping Steve Blake and Chris Duhon.

Yet now we know that there are no roadblocks in the rule book blocking Fisher’s return.

He might ultimately decide to jump on the next palatable offer that presents itself, but I’m told that both Fisher and the Lakers have a level of interest in reuniting down the road if the circumstances are right, suggesting that the tension stemming from L.A.’s decision to discard the 38-year-old last spring is fading.

No less an authority than Kobe Bryant announced this week that he's convinced longtime teammate Derek Fisher will not have to wait forever to remove himself from the list of free agents still looking for work.

"I'm pretty confident," Kobe says, "he'll find a team."

It might even be the Los Angeles Lakers, in extreme circumstances, if more dominoes fall fortuitously for the team that has already annoyed the rest of the league with all of its good dominoes fortune this past offseason.

It's not feasible for the Lakers to bring back Fisher now, because league rules preclude them from signing a player traded away and then waived (in this case by Houston) for one year after the original deal. Which means March 15, 2013, is the earliest Fisher could legally re-sign with L.A.

Yet sources with knowledge of the Lakers' thinking say that the team is already trying to create a backcourt opening, having made it clear to the rest of the league that Chris Duhon and Steve Blake are available via trade to any interested party willing to absorb one of those contracts.

While it's true that no trade is imminent in either case, that's also the norm in October when outlooks are still rosy in pretty much every NBA training camp and teams generally aren't ready to move. Could the Lakers eventually find a taker for one of those vets? Blake has one season left on his contract after this one valued at $4 million, but Duhon's $3.75 million salary in 2013-14 is unguaranteed, which makes his contract a more attractive acquisition.

The bigger question is whether Fisher, at 38, is prepared to wait around into the spring to see if the Lakers would have a suitable need for him or if it's wiser to join the first contender that comes calling.

It's believed that both Fisher and fellow vet free agent Kenyon Martin were in no rush to sign anything in this guaranteed-dollars-are-scarce marketplace, figuring that an early-season injury suffered by an elite team could change the landscape in a hurry. Yet it would take a considerable amount of patience from Fisher if he's intent on holding out for the Lakers.

It should be noted, though, that Bryant's fellow alumnus from the NBA draft class of 1996 returned from his brief stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder late last season to train for much of the offseason at both the Lakers' and Clippers' practice facilities. That's even after the Lakers felt they had to move Fisher out in March as part of the various trade-deadline machinations that brought Jordan Hill and Ramon Sessions to town.

"Every team," Kobe announced Wednesday, "needs a guard like him."

Along with Fish and K-Mart, any list of the most established names yet to be signed in free agency would have to include Gilbert Arenas, Leandro Barbosa, Josh Howard, Mehmet Okur, Mickael Pietrus and Michael Redd.

Correction: The original version of this post suggested that Fisher could re-sign with the Lakers immediately. But he is not actually eligible to return until March 15, 2013, because he was waived by the team (Houston) that originally acquired him from L.A.

A new name has emerged in the race to become Israel's second-ever NBA player alongside Cleveland's Omri Casspi.

Point guard Gal Mekel impressed the Utah Jazz in a recent audition to such a degree that the Jazz, according to sources close to the situation, have extended an unexpected invitation to training camp to Mekel, who played two seasons at Wichita State from 2006-08.

But sources told ESPN.com that visa complications have made it unlikely that Mekel could be ready to join the Jazz before the end of the coming week at the earliest, by which point he'd have already missed several practices, thus setting him back and complicating any attempt to try to make Utah's roster.

So the most likely scenario now, sources say, is that Mekel, 24, will play in Europe for one more season before coming back to the States to play summer league ball next July.

During last week's visit to Utah's practice facility, sources say Mekel impressed Jazz officials in pickup games with his ballhandling, size, ability to read the game and, most of all, his effectiveness in pick and rolls.

The suggestion is that the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder might actually be more effective in the NBA game than he is internationally, particularly in pick-and-roll situations, because the lane tends to be so much more clogged overseas.

Since leaving the collegiate ranks, Mekel has won both Rookie of the Year (2009) and league MVP (2011) awards in his homeland during a three-season run in the Israeli Super League, bouncing between perennial European powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv and Gilboa Galil Elyon. Mekel spent the 2011-12 season with Benetton Treviso in Italy but was slowed by a bout with plantar fasciitis.

He's close with Casspi and recently joined the Cleveland swingman and another emerging NBA guard prospect -- Maccabi Tel Aviv's Yogev Ohayon -- on the Israeli national team that qualified for the 2013 Eurobasket tournament in Slovenia.

Besides Casspi, power forward Lior Eliyahu and combo guard Yotam Halperin are the only other Israelis whose rights are currently held by an NBA team. But both players, selected in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft, have spent their entire pro careers with elite teams in Europe.

Minnesota acquired Eliyahu's rights from Houston in June as part of the trade that landed Chase Budinger with the Timberwolves, but Eliyahu, now 27, has only sampled NBA summer-league ball since being drafted 44th overall in 2006.

Halperin, drafted No. 53 overall by Seattle in '06, is now 28 and has opted for the security of more lucrative deals in Slovenia, Greece, Russia and Germany -- in addition to multiple stints with Maccabi Tel Aviv -- as opposed to taking on the risky challenge of making it to the NBA without the safety net of a guaranteed contract.

It appears Mekel, though, is poised to chase the NBA dream after the strong encouragement he got from the Jazz.