Kerry Kittles is in and Quentin Richardson is out at shooting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers acquired Kerry Kittles from the Nets On Thursday for a future second-round pick.

?We are very pleased to announce the addition of Kerry Kittles, who is a talented player with a great work ethic,? said Clippers Vice President of Basketball Operations Elgin Baylor. ?Kerry plays hard on both ends of the floor and has a great feel for the game. He is also a veteran player who brings a tremendous amount of playoff experience to our roster.?

Kittles averaged 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds while playing in all 82 games for the Nets last season.

The trade will give the Nets a Traded Player Exception worth a little over $9.2 million.

In other news, ESPNEWS is reporting that the Clippers will not match the Phoenix Suns' six-year $42.6 million offer sheet for Richardson.

Restricted free agent swingman Quentin Richardson and the Phoenix Suns have waited 14 days for the Los Angeles Clippers to decide whether or not to match their six-year, $42.6-million offer sheet.

Today, they will finally get an answer as the Clippers must decide today where Quentin Richardson will play next season.

The Suns and Richardson don't appear to have an idea as to what the Clippers will decide.

"At this point, we have no idea what the Clippers' ultimate decision will be," Bryan Colangelo, the Suns' general manager, said near the end of business Wednesday, later adding that he didn't suspect he'd know before today.

Asked Wednesday evening whether he had any idea where he might end up, Richardson said, "To be honest with you, I have no clue."

Corey Maggette will be holding a completely free basketball camp for boys and girls ages 9 to 16 this week at Proviso West High School in Chicago.

This is the sixth straight year the Los Angelas Clippers star has conducted the camp, which features instruction on basketball fundamentals, celebrity appearances and free lunch.

For more information about Maggette's camp, visit his web site at http://www.coreymaggette.com

Now that Shareef Abdur-Rahim is out of their grasp, the New Jersey Nets are still trying to trade guard Kerry Kittles, now setting their sights on Clippers backup bigman Chris Wilcox according to a report in today's New York Post by Marc Berman.

The Clippers have more than enough room to accept Kittles without taking on any additional salary, and after receiving three first round draft choices from the Nuggets in exchange for Kenyon Martin there is hardly a neeed for more.

The Nets are trying to find a replacement forward for Martin who bolted for the Nuggets, and they are using Kittles as their primary source of trade bait.  Kittles, despite his $9.8 million salary, has value on the market since he is entering the final year of his contract, meaning in twelve months he becomes valuable cap space to the team who owns his rights.

The Nets and Portland Trail Blazers appeared to be perfect trading companions should they have decided to swap Kittles plus extras for Abdur-Rahim, but the Blazers decided to sign Minnesota restricted free agent Trenton Hassell to a large offer sheet instead, eliminating their need for a guard.

"Portland blew an excellent opportunity and the Nets blew a chance to replace Kenyon Martin," Abdur-Rahim's agent Aaron Goodwin said. "I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't disappointed."

LA Clippers free agent Keyon Dooling is going home to back up Dwayne Wade for the Miami Heat.

'Dooling, who grew up in nearby Fort Lauderdale, signed a one-year contract with a player option for a second season. The deal was announced Thursday.'

``It's a no-brainer if you get an opportunity to play with somebody like that who can elevate your game to the next level,'' Dooling said. ``I've been on a team that wasn't the best team in the past. I really wanted to play for a good team.''

'The 6-foot-3 Dooling, the 10th player taken in the 2000 draft, spent his first four NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers. Ankle and foot injuries forced him to miss 68 games in 2002 and 20 in 2003.'

Last season Dooling averaged  6.2 points per game.

``I'm healthy now and get a fresh start, and hopefully I can make a name for myself in this league,'' Dooling said. ``My best basketball is ahead of me.''

The Heat lost their old backup point guard to Toronto.

'The Heat remain in the market for perimeter shooters and met last weekend with forward Robert Horry.'

They may have danced with Kobe once or twice at the bar, but hopefully Elgin Baylor didn't think he was actually taking him home to The Pond for those ten games a year and has a supplementary plan in place.  

Their first order of business is deciding whether or not to match the contract that Quentin Richardson signed with the Suns.  All signs indicate that they will indeed match the contract, with Richardson, Brand and Maggette being the centerpieces for a promising ballclub under the leadership of Mike Dunleavy, Sr.

Even though Kobe Bryant decided to remain in the purple wing of the Staples Center, the Clipper are still capable of dethroning the Lakers' title of L.A.'s Best this season.

The day after Shaquille O'Neal left for sunny Florida via trade, Kobe Bryant came true on his past comments of being a "Laker for life" ... for now.

Bryant has informed the Lakers that he will be signing a contract with the team, staying with the team which he helped win three championships rather than join the cross town Clippers, a team which appears to have been in rebuilding mode for an eternity.

"Kobe has informed us he's going to stay with the Lakers and sign a new contract," Lakers spokesman John Black said Thursday afternoon. Bryant planned to speak at a news conference at 9 p.m. ET.

The Clippers earlier this week traded Melvin Ely and Eddie House to the Charlotte Bobcats to create additional space to accomodate the salary a player like Bryant commands.  Now left dry the team may now match the offer sheet that Quentin Richardson has signed with the Phoenix Suns, something that Richardson is hoping they do not do.

Bryant will be the key figure in a vastly different Laker team that lost to the Pistons in five games last season, joining newcomers Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler as well as a new coach in Rudy Tomjanovich.

"With Kobe, we're one of the premier teams," Lakers owner Jerry Buss said earlier this week.

This may be true, but will they ever be as strong as they were with Shaq by his side?

Shaquille O'Neal finally got his wish today when the Los Angeles Lakers officially traded the superstar back to Florida as the trading and signing period officially opened in the NBA.

O'Neal immediately becomes the key piece of the Miami Heat, exchanging places with Caron Butler, Brian Grant and Lamar Odom who all become Lakers.  Odom returns to L.A. after signing an offer sheet with the Heat last offseason which Los Angeles' "other" team, the Clippers, never matched.  The Lakers will also receive a first round draft pick in the deal.

"Today the Miami Heat took a giant step forward in our continued pursuit of an NBA championship," Riley said in a statement. "We feel that we have traded for the best player in the NBA."

O'Neal will join ex-teammate Eddie Jones in Miami, with Jones estatic to be joining forces once again with the league's best bigman.

"I never imagined that we would acquire Shaquille O'Neal," guard Eddie Jones said. "It's once-in-a-lifetime trying to get a player like this guy. It's an unbelievable, unbelievable move."

The Lakers now must turn their attention to trying to retain free agent guard Kobe Bryant, who is rumored to be leaning towards the Clippers after the team traded to create even more space yesterday.

The Charlotte Observer reported for Wednesday's editions that the Clippers will trade forward Melvin Ely ($1.75 milion) and guard Eddie House ($825,000) to the expansion Charlotte Bobcats for future second-round draft picks.

That brings LA's total cap space to the neighberhood of 14 million, just enough to sign Kobe Bryant to the max or very close to it (106 million over 6 years).

The stage is now set for the crosstown rival Clippers to steal Kobe away from the Lakers.  

In other news, the Lakers decided to put off sending Shaquille O'neal to the Miami Heat for now, claiming they did not realize that Lamar Odom had a trade kicker in his contract.

Quentin Richardson was in Phoenix shopping for real estate yesterday and has apparently signed an offer sheet with the Phoenix Suns after 9 p.m. PDT, a six-year deal worth $45 million, with potential bonuses that could push its value closer to $50 million.

"It's time for me to move on and be a Phoenix Sun," Richardson said.

The 6-foot-5 guard said that he was not insulted by the Clippers' pursuit of Bryant but viewed it as a sign that he'd better be prepared to leave.

"I took it like, they're going to do what they feel is best for the organization and for the team," he said. "I don't have anything against that, but at the same time, that being said, when they show me something like that, that makes me feel like, 'Well, OK, I have to do what's best for me.' And I feel like what's best for me is going out and being a Phoenix Sun."

He urged the Clippers to let him go, Bryant or no Bryant.

"If things don't work out for you," he said, "I don't feel that you should take away from me. I didn't go to the media and complain and say, 'They're not committed to me; they're doing this.' I didn't cry about it.

"I just went out and did ultimately what I felt was best for me. I think you can only respect that. I would never dog the organization because I had a good time there?. I could go out and try to bash them in the papers or whatever, but ultimately it's what they want to do, so it makes no sense to take that approach. I feel like I'm going to be a man about it, let them know where I stand and how I feel about it. They'll either let me have what I want, or they won't."

"Ultimately, my biggest thing was to go out and get a deal with a team that I could see myself playing for, and I've done that," he said. "I love the situation I'm in. They just signed Steve Nash and they've got Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion ? a good core group of guys. We could do some good things.

"That's the biggest thing for me: I want to win. I said that from day one with the Clippers. That's all I'm about: I want to win; I want to be part of a winning team."

The Suns, he said, "took a leap of faith" in signing him.

"It takes a lot for a team to extend an offer to a restricted free agent when they know your team could possibly match," he said. "I've got a great deal of respect for the organization for that.

"You don't do that unless you're really interested in somebody."