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It's a nice step in the right direction for the young third baseman, who injured his ankle on a slide on May 27. He should be cleared to run the bases in about one week. Then comes the minor league rehab assignment. The best guess right now is that he's back in early July.

He'll be just one step away from activation at that point. Reyes, who has been on the shelf since April 12 with a severe ankle sprain, is 5-for-12 through his first three rehab games at High-A Dunedin. He should be back in the Blue Jays' starting lineup in less than a week.

Morrow felt lingering discomfort in his forearm Monday after going two innings in a rehab start at High-A Dunedin. He will refrain from throwing for a week or so to let the inflammation that is bothering him go away. Morrow remains sidelined indefinitely.

Cahill got hit on the leg in the first inning and tried to come out to pitch the second but couldn't make it through his warmup tosses. He threw a scoreless first frame. It did not appear to be a serious injury.

There has been talk that Howard and pending UFA Chris Paul would like to team up, but Bryant believes both players will re-sign in the end. Bryant said he talked to Howard a couple weeks ago but will "touch base a lot more" in the coming weeks before free agency. Despite the rumored angst between Bryant and Howard, it's clear Kobe knows how valuable a player like Howard can be when healthy and would prefer to play with him than against him next season. It remains to be seen if Howard feels the same way.

Kobe said Wednesday he's fully mobile aside from being unable to run still. More importantly though, this is the first time we've heard Bryant admit he probably won't be ready for opening night after undergoing surgery on a torn Achilles on April 13. The normal recovery timetable for such an injury is six to nine months and a December return would slot right into the middle of that timeline. We'll have to see how Kobe progresses over the summer before coming anywhere close to a realistic return timetable.

Simon added he expects a resolution at some point next week. Bird took last season off and then briefly flirted with the Kings' GM position earlier in June before withdrawing his name from consideration. Donnie Walsh, who replaced Bird as team president, has said he plans to step aside as soon as Bird returns, which Walsh believes will happen at some point this summer. Walsh expects to run the Pacers' draft, but it sounds like Larry Legend could be back in the fold after that.