<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">After the initial flurry of activity, the NBA's meat market has slowed down a bit, partly because teams are waiting for the results of the NBA's new one-time amnesty rule that allows teams to dump a big salary to avoid paying the luxury tax. "I think that's the next step," said Utah Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor on Monday. The deadline for use of the amnesty waiver is next Monday. Not all teams will use the opportunity. "We're working on it," said O'Connor about possible roster changes that could involve signing free agents or making further trades, "but it's something that doesn't come as easily or as quickly as you want." What does come quickly and easily are rumors, and O'Connor bristled at mention of one that was making the rounds Monday, that power forward Carlos Boozer and swingman Matt Harpring have been made available for trade by the Jazz. The rumor on a relatively new Web site quoted an unnamed NBA general manager as saying this was known around the league and that Atlanta, Boston and Dallas are the most interested. "Boozer and Harpring are both names that have been mentioned to me, as far as guys they are wanting to trade," the unidentified GM told the Web site. "That's an absolute lie. It's an absolute lie," O'Connor said Monday. Told it was purportedly an unidentified NBA GM who said that, O'Connor said, "Well, he's a liar, and you can write that. I wish some of these people would step forward and say this is the guy. Put your name next to it. "We're not shopping them and it's an absolute lie," O'Connor said. Dallas owner Mark Cuban, whose Mavericks were said to be among the teams most interested in the Jazz players, told the Deseret Morning News via e-mail that, "We haven't talked to the Jazz at all," and that the Mavs "haven't heard one way or the other" whether the Jazz are offering Boozer or Harpring. O'Connor was pronounced in his denial Monday. But that was also the case in June when he angrily denied that the Jazz had talked to Portland about swapping for the No. 3 pick in the June 28 draft and that Gordan Giricek and Kirk Snyder might be included in a deal that could also involve Trail Blazer Ruben Patterson. Utah eventually acquired the No. 3 pick from Portland without exchanging players, but Snyder was sent to New Orleans in the transaction that returned center Greg Ostertag from Sacramento to Utah last week. Boozer was publicly taken to task in February by Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, citing what he considered inconsistent effort during a losing streak. But Miller and Boozer later talked, and Miller said in both April and May that he could not foresee wanting to trade Boozer, whose 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds each led the team. Boozer was the Jazz's leading scorer in 25 games and the leading rebounder in 26 of the 51 games he played. A foot injury sidelined him from mid-February on. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan spoke enthusiastically about Boozer last week, saying Boozer had made a commitment just before he got hurt "to making himself a better player. We felt like he was getting over the hurdle to being a better player. Not just being a body on the floor, but being able to do something because you're in great shape. I strongly feel he'll have a much better year this year if he stays healthy," Sloan said, adding Boozer's body fat is now below six percent thanks to offseason workouts.</div> Source
