Around The Rim

Jaws Dropped in Toronto when new Indiana coach Isiah Thomas hired Brendan Malone as his top assistant. When Thomas was the Raptors' executive vice president and Malone was their first coach, he fired Malone after one season, 1995-96, in an argument over what Thomas felt was inadequate playing time for younger players. "Brendan's competitive nature was that he wanted to win," recalls Thomas. "That's a good thing." ...

Thomas is hoping that 34-year-old Rik Smits will return. "His feet weren't bothering him last year," says Pacers president Donnie Walsh, who sounded optimistic about his visit with Smits this week....

Rasheed Wallace is telling friends he'll do whatever the Trail Blazers ask of him this season. One thing the team may ask is that he play more center if the trade for Shawn Kemp goes through—provided that Kemp loses weight and regains the athleticism that made him one of the league's best power forwards from 1993 to '98. The Blazers hope that Kemp will be inspired by Portland assistant coach Tim Grgurich, who had a close relationship with Kemp when both were in Seattle....

The Mavericks helped blow up the Patrick Ewing trade by discussing a two-part trade with the Pistons: Dallas would send them Cedric Ceballos, Eric Murdock and John Wallace for Christian Laettner; then in October, after the recently acquired Dana Barros and Bill Curley can be moved again, they'd be swapped for Loy Vaught, whose contract the Pistons are desperate to unload.