The Mavs will be bringing in Kurt Thomas (6-9, 240, Texas Christian)
and Andrew DeClerqc (6-10, 224, Florida) for workouts this week (for 
the #24 pick).

A reporter with the Fort Worth Star Telegram talked with someone in the 
Mavs office and they said that both the Dennis Rodman and Kevin Duckworth
rumors were false (but Motta did say that he likes Rodman - I heard
him talk about Rodman myself and it was pretty scary).

It sounds like that the highest possible pick that the Mavs could get
for trading up in the draft is #9 (New Jersey), so look for the Mavs
to keep both the #12 and #24 picks.

In the mock draft performed by some GMs and team personal during/after
the Chicago draft camp, they had Dallas selecting Mario Bennett at #12
(sorry, I don't recall who the #24 was, but it wasn't one of the usual 
names tossed around).

Various reporters are saying that Roy Tarpley was unprotected for the 
expansion draft.  The actual protection lists are confidentual and will
not be released to the public (and are do today, excluding Orlando and
Houston).  [I still say that leaving Tarpley unprotected is very stupid.
He does have some trade value and some teams have been asking about him;
he will lose his base year status once the new collective bargaining 
agreement is installed and will be tradable under the salary cap rules
[assuming that they do not change negatively to player movement]; and
the Mavs will only get his base year salary slot of ~$800,000 to play
with if he is selected in the expansion draft instead of his full
$3,000,000 salary.]


patricia