Foulshots.com's Take: It is certainly no surprise that the 38 year-old Jordan has suffered from a variety of injuries during his second comeback. Playing around 40 minutes a game is a daunting task for anyone, much less an aging player coming off of a long layoff. Unfortunately, the Wizards cannot really save Jordan for the playoffs, as they have no hope of getting to the postseason without superhuman contributions from him.

Foulshots.com's Take: Not good. Olowokandi, who was selected number one overall in the 1998 draft, has been a major disappointment for the Clippers. He has not shown significant signs of progress and is not a dominant center at this point in his career. Worst of all, the "Kandi Man" was selected before superstars such as Vince Carter, Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki. Now thats he is in the final year of his contract, it was important for Olowokandi to have a breakout year. However, it has not happened so far, as he is averaging less than 7 points per game.

Foulshots.com's Take: Orlando's $93 million investment in Hill has been a disaster thus far. This season, Hill has looked more like a power forward than a sleek, athletic swingman due to his ankle problems. The Magic must rest Hill for as long as possible so that their long-term plans are not derailed, even if resting Hill leads to short-term failure. Orlando is building for the future, and an ineffective Grant Hill would destroy all of their plans because of his huge salary.

Foulshots.com Take: Stevie Franchise could be out for even longer than 4-6 weeks because he is suffering from plantar fasciitis, an injury that lingers for a long, long time. Plantar fasciitis was the reason Steve Nash was a useless player during his first two seasons in Dallas. This injury is truly a crippling blow to a Rockets franchise that was depends very heavily on Francis to carry an otherwise moderately talented team to the playoffs.

The Suns, who also got an unspecified amount of cash from Orlando, sent Jud Buechler to the Magic and Vinny Del Negro to the Clippers. Orlando also gave cash to Los Angeles and acquired an option to swap second-round picks with the Clippers in the 2005 draft.

The first-round draft pick, with the year unspecified, is the remaining selection that Phoenix sent to Orlando as part of the sign-and-trade deal to acquire Penny Hardaway in 1999.

Foulshots.com Take: This was a foolish trade for a desperate Suns team that is badly in need of an interior defensive presence. Jerry Colangelo appears to have taken a page from his Arizona Diamondbacks model of team management by mortgaging the future to obtain a quick fix. Outlaw will help the Suns with his defense and rebounding, but he is signed to a contract that averages roughly $6 million a year until 2005.

The Magic did well by dumping Outlaw's contract and taking on Jud Buechler's $4 million a year deal, which expires at the end of next season. While the deal will hurt them this season since Outlaw's defense and rebounding cannot be replaced by anyone on the current roster, the Magic are clearly positioning themselves to go after Tim Duncan in 2003. The Clippers were just the third party with cap room whose involvement facilitated the deal.

Foulshots.com Take: This doesn't sound like anything major. His backup Sean Marks, the former Cal center from New Zeeland, should be able to post adequate numbers in Mourning's absence.