Mason still waiting

The agent for Roger Mason Jr. said this afternoon that the Wizards backup guard remains in talks with several teams, but isn't close to signing a deal.

"We continue to have conversations with several teams," Mark Bartelstein said. "But for now, we'll continue to work our way through the process, and there's nothing new to report right now."

Mason, the Wizards' final unrestricted agent, is coming off of a career year in which he averaged 9.1 points and a team-high .398 3-point shooting percentage. Mason, who had re-signed with the Wizards in 2007 for a one-year, $770,610 deal, is believed to have raised his stock and asking price to roughly $2 million, but teams likely will wait until they have filled their top needs before extending him an offer. The Wizards met their top needs by re-signing both Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, and management has maintained that they desire to re-sign the D.C. native. But when asked if Mason had received any offers, Bartelstein simply answered, "I'd rather not get into the specifics right now, just that we continue to have conversations with several teams and we will continue to work our way through the process."

Tomorrow is the first day teams can officially sign players to contracts, but the Wizards are expected to wait until Arenas returns from his two-week trip which included stops in China, the Philippines, Barcelona and Berlin, before having the guard sign a contract. A team source said the team could fax a contract to Arenas, but because of the numerous pages and details -- and since the team and player have an agreement in place already -- they likely will wait. Arenas is scheduled to return from overseas on July 15. His plane touches down in Los Angeles and then he'll return to D.C. sometime shortly after that.