Rasheed Thinking Comeback: There was no doubt that Rasheed Wallace, most recently of the Boston Celtics, had a lot of game left when he decided to retire at the end of last season. He was still one of the league’s most talented big men with two-years and $13 million left on his contract to encourage him to stay. Yet, he still decided to call it a career as all the wear and tear from playing 15 years of professional basketball finally took its toll on him – and his back especially.

You just couldn’t help but feel like the timing wasn’t right, though.

Few players in the league loved playing the game of basketball as much as Rasheed. He has always been one of the league’s most fiery competitors who absolutely disdained losing no matter what the circumstances were.

What made it harder to believe is that the Celtics were all rallying together for one last push. Everyone came back from last year’s team that came one victory shy of winning the NBA Finals, except for Wallace and Tony Allen, now a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. It just didn’t seem Rasheed-like to turn down an opportunity to play for a championship with a group of guys that he really enjoyed playing with.

Rumors surfaced throughout the summer that Rasheed was already second guessing his decision to retire. Shaquille O’Neal voiced his desire for him to return upon signing with the Celtics, but the team waived him and moved on as if he would never play again.

Now Rasheed is reportedly thinking about a comeback according to Stephen A. Smith and he wants to do it with the Celtics.

While the Celtics players may want Rasheed back, they currently have a league maximum of 15 players under contract. In order to bring back Rasheed they would have to let somebody go. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said there have been no discussions on this subject, meaning Wallace could have to look to make his comeback elsewhere.

Every team in the league would benefit from adding Wallace. Even at the age of 36 he’s one of the few big men in the league who can hold his own at the power forward and center position on both ends of the floor. Of course, contenders are the only teams likely to be considered by Wallace, who understandably prioritizes winning at this point of his career.

The first team that immediately comes to mind is the Orlando Magic. The Magic are without a true backup to center Dwight Howard after shipping off Marcin Gortat with Vince Carter and Mikeal Pietrus to Phoenix in the deal that brought them Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu. Wallace’s ability to backup Howard and play alongside of him makes him an extremely attractive option. The Magic are not actively looking sign Wallace right now, but that could change if he isn’t welcomed back by the Celtics.

The San Antonio Spurs were also really interested in Rasheed when he was a free agent in 2009. Since missing out on him they’ve added DeJuan Blair, Tiago Splitter and Antonio McDyess, but you can never have enough good big men in the Western Conference. To make matters even more convenient, the Spurs actually have a vacant spot on their roster that they have to fill in order to meet the league’s minimum requirements.

The threat of Wallace landing with another contender like the Magic or Spurs makes it worth the Celtics shuffling their roster to make room for him. He’s too dangerous to let go of because wherever he ends up he’s going to make an impact.

Worse Than He Thought: The Cleveland Cavaliers are currently sitting at the bottom of the NBA’s standings and there’s little reason to think they’ll move from there now with starting center Anderson Varejao done for the year. Head coach Byron Scott knew as soon as LeBron James announced he’d be signing with the Miami HEAT that life was going to be tough, but he did expect to be a little bit better than 8-29.

"When I took the job I took it with the understanding that number one LeBron could possibly be gone," said Scott to ESPN Radio in Los Angeles. I looked at it that way first. If he stayed, great, but for me it wasn’t a damaging blow because I expected him to be gone. Worst case scenario type of possibility. At this particular time in the season, did I think we would only have eight wins? No. I thought we would be much further along than we are. I didn’t expect the injuries that we’ve had as well. A little tougher than I expected, but nothing I can’t deal with, nothing I haven’t been able to deal with and nothing I haven’t dealt with before."

{AUTHOR_BOX}The Cavaliers are ranked 26th in the league offensively, but it’s actually the other end of the floor where Scott sees the problems that have plagued them the most.

"Our issues are mainly on the defensive side of the ball," said Scott. "We’re doing a pretty good job offensively and guys are starting to understand what we’re trying to run on a night to night basis, guys are starting to get a pretty good feel for that. But the defensive end of the floor is a big mystery to me. Every time I think we’re taking a step forward, we’re taking two steps backwards.

"There are nights where it looks like we’re really in tune and focused in on what we talked about doing then there’s other nights where it looks like we haven’t practiced one defensive drill all night long. My defensive philosophy is to keep banging it in their heads until they understand that this is how we gotta play. We’ve gotta be very competitive on this end of the floor if we want to give ourselves a chance to win."

Tonight the Cavaliers face a very tough task in the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers lost four straight not that long ago, but are really starting to hit their stride now as Bill Ingram detailed earlier today in the NBA At 2. While many may have the Cavaliers’ 30th loss already penciled in, Scott sees a way his team can steal one away.

"For us to pull off an upset we need five or six guys to play really, really well, but that’s the same thing we’ve needed for the past month," said Scott. "Last game against Phoenix we had three guys play really, really well. If we had two more guys we probably win that game. Against the world champions we’re going ot have to have five guys play one play really, really good basketball. If we can do that we have a chance. It’s really hard when you have all these young guys. I have so many young guys on the team getting a lot more experience than they probably wouldn’t have if I had Anthony Parker, Anderson, and Boobie Gibson. All those guys aren’t’ healthy. They’re being thrown in the fire and having to play significant roles now. My thing is still the same. When we step on the floor I don’t look at who’s on the floor. When we step on the floor we give ourselves an opportunity to win. That’s how I look at it. No excuses."

Amar’e Isn’t Stupid: It’s not surprising to see the report of Amar’e Stoudemire preferring to be the star of the New York Knicks quickly dismissed. That story, which cited an anonymous former teammate of Stoudemire’s as a source, has been followed up with Amar’e adamantly stating otherwise.

Amar’e made it very clear to Newsday that he would really like to play with another superstar. He dodged mentioning Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony specifically, but did say that he hopes things work out for the best with him.

With eight years of experience under his belt Stoudemire understands that an NBA championship cannot be won with just one All-Star player. He knows he has to have help and lots of it. Even when paired up in Phoenix with one of the league’s premier point guards in Steve Nash Stoudemire couldn’t get to the Finals, so there’s no illusion that he can take a team there himself.

When Stoudemire first signed on with the Knicks he immediately started working the phones, calling some of his fellow superstars to try to persuade them to come to New York. While he may enjoy all the love and attention he’s getting now, eventually the honeymoon with Knicks fans will wear off and they’ll start wanting championships.

In order to deliver on those demands Stoudemire needs a legitimate go-to guy like New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul or Anthony out on the perimeter. So any more talk about him wanting the spotlight for himself should be laughed off, because that simply isn’t the case.

Twitter: The 2010-2011 season is here and HOOPSWORLD is going to have a much larger presence on twitter. If you aren’t following all of our experts you’re missing out on some of the most-up-to-date information in both the NBA and NCAA along with breaking news and great insight. HOOPSWORLD’s twitter team consists of Yannis Koutroupis, Steve Kyler, Bill Ingram, Alex Kennedy, Eric Pincus, Lang Greene, Jason Fleming, Tommy Beer, Luke Byrnes, Alex Raskin, and Joel Brigham.

NBA Chats: Chat wraps from earlier today are available from Luke Byrnes and Eric Pincus. Tomorrow’s chat schedule features Steve Kyler in the AM and Tommy Beer in the PM. As always you can also checkout our entire upcoming chat schedule.