AGENTS AREN'T CUT, STAY IN THE LINEUP.

Byline: HOWARD BECK The NBA 

Another piece of conventional wisdom passed quietly through the document shredder over the past week, and maybe you didn't even notice.

Player agents - contrary to widespread, premature reports of their demise - are alive and well and wreaking havoc in an NBA city near you.

And in Washington. And Minnesota. Phoenix. Denver.

But first, a quick review of the lockout, and the new labor agreement that resulted, and the hasty conclusions everyone drew.

NBA owners won big when they forced the union to accept maximum salaries for all players. That much is true. But with that came a common assumption: that maximum salaries would deal a major blow to agents and their influence. Sadly, not true.

While Milwaukee's Ray Allen has in fact forgone an agent in favor of an hourly lawyer - Johnnie Cochrane, and you can write your own punch line - there are far more indications that agents have as much power as ever. Perhaps they can no longer artificially drive up a player's value by threatening to test the market (see Kevin Garnett, $126 million), now that the market is an even playing field, with all teams offering similar money.

But that hasn't stopped David Falk (remember him?) from having client Rod Strickland hold out from the Washington Wizards, who don't want to pay him the max and aren't falling for the sign-me-and-trade-me bit.

The new rules also didn't stop Tony Dutt and James Bryant from directing their client, Antonio McDyess, away from the success of Phoenix to the woes of Denver. There, McDyess is united with Dutt/Bryant client and buddy Nick Van Exel and a stable of other Dutt/Bryant players, whose arrivals all appeared to be coordinated by the agents.

Meanwhile, as the Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves both tried to get Tom Gugliotta's services, his agent managed to muck things up so badly that Gugliotta ended up signing with Phoenix - for millions less. That story begins and ends with Richard Howell, agent for both Gugliotta and the Lakers' Elden Campbell. Howell, with the Lakers' full cooperation of course, wanted to engineer a swap of his clients, Campbell to Minnesota and Gugliotta to L.A.

Minnesota wasn't sold on the deal, even though it meant obtaining Eddie Jones as well. But if given a choice - let Gugs walk away for nothing, or get an All-Star guard and solid starting center - you'd have to think the Wolves would opt for the latter.

Howell thought so, too. So for two weeks, he sat on Minnesota's offer for the maximum $86.6 million. Didn't respond, didn't say, ``We'll think about it.'' He waited until training camps opened, when teams were desperately assembling their rosters. He gambled that Minnesota would panic and make the deal.

Bad bet. The Timberwolves, unsure of Gugliotta's intentions, not willing to let Howell dictate trade terms, rushed out and signed Joe Smith to a one-year deal. Now they had their power forward, and Gugliotta, suddenly feeling pushed out the door, turned to Phoenix, where he signed for $28 million less.

The Suns won. The Lakers, Timberwolves and even Gugliotta lost.

``If Tommy wanted to be in Phoenix, I'm happy for him,'' said Minnesota VP Kevin McHale. ``But if he didn't, he ought to fire the agent.''

Perhaps it's true that the Timberwolves never would have made the deal with the Lakers, based on basketball reasons alone - i.e., they don't think Campbell is worth the $40 million they'd have to pay, and Jones could leave as a free agent in 2000.

But perhaps, too, if Howell hadn't been playing roulette with his client's career, things might have turned out differently. Minnesota was determined not to let the agent run their operation, though defying him left them empty-handed.

``I think when the Laker thing was thrown out there, Richard (Howell) thought that was a very viable option,'' said general manager/coach Flip Saunders. ``That, I think, intrigued Tommy. But all I think it did was muddy the waters for everybody.''

And proved once again that agents still pull the strings in this league, even if they don't always get the results they want.

Speaking of gambles: Before Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause decided to Huizenga the Chicago Bulls, dismantling the champions piece by piece, they had a decision to make: Stink now or stink later.

Lousy options, and they chose the former. Without Michael Jordan, the Bulls decided to disband, trading away Scottie Pippen, Luc Longley and Steve Kerr for draft picks and spare parts.

What if they hadn't? Pippen might not lead Chicago to a championship, but surrounding him with Toni Kukoc, Dennis Rodman and one quality free agent would have kept the Bulls in the playoffs for at least another couple of years.

Instead, they'll send Bill Wennington and the former roster of the Yakima Sun Kings onto the United Center floor, shooting for a first-to-worst trophy.

The plan is to let them founder, get into the draft lottery, pick up an impact rookie and use all the salary-cap space to nab at least one big free agent. Unfortunately for the Bulls, that last part might not work out as planned either.

With the new maximum salaries and higher pay for players who stay with their teams, player movement will slow to a crawl. Already, potential free agents Allen Iverson (Philadelphia), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (Vancouver), Antoine Walker (Boston), Kobe Bryant (Lakers) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Cleveland) have signed extensions for the maximum.

That leaves only a handful of top-flight potential free agents from the draft class of '96: Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, Kerry Kittles and Vitaly Potapenko.

That rebuilding project could outlast the Bulls' eight-year reign.

Mastering the NBA: Hip-hop mogul Master P, who wants to double as a pro basketball player, went to training camp with the Charlotte Hornets.

The original hip-hop hoopster, the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal, isn't impressed.

``I saw him play. He's all right, I guess,'' O'Neal said. ``Just keep in mind, I was the first to do both and dominate both. That's all that matters. Everyone else is just copycats.''