They are gambling that his mind will be more valuable than his hands. As the mind belongs to one who was a linguistics and diplomacy major at Georgetown University, it may be a good bet.

	Mutombo

Dikembe Mutombo's brain may be the best part of him, and as he is still 7-foot-2 and 280 pounds, that makes it a valuable collection of synapses, indeed.

If the Nets are going to pick up where they left off last season, the 36-year-old Mutombo will have to be in the middle of things at both ends of the floor. He will be able to block shots and rebound until he's 50.

But can Mutombo contribute offensively in New Jersey's Princeton offense? Neither a prolific scorer nor a possessor of great hands, Mutombo will have to find spots to score on the floor other than the low block, and he'll have to run with Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson.

There's no doubt that with the Mount in the back and Jefferson taking over at small forward for Keith Van Horn, the Nets will be better defensively. And in May and June, that will be more important. But first, you have to get to May and June. And so the question hangs in the air: Can Mutombo do enough at the other end of the floor to keep the Nets flowing as they did so effectively and entertainingly last season?

"He's going to be better in our offense than you all think," Nets coach Byron Scott says, emphatically.

It's a key question for New Jersey.

When the Nets are running, Kidd is the conductor of the show, and there's no one better in basketball. But when the offense slows down to halfcourt, the Nets' center is just as important as the point guard, if not more so. He doesn't just walk to the low post and wait for an entry pass. By reading the defense from the high post, the pivotman determines in large part the way the Nets are going to attack. Many times, the center makes the pass that leads to the scoring pass.

Last season, Todd MacCullough fit into the Nets' system like a duck in water. There wasn't a pass Kidd threw on which Canadian T Mac didn't get his huge, reliable mitts. He set great picks and moved without the ball and was an asset, not a liability, in the offense. But the Nets believe that Mutombo can do all of that, even though he's never been in an offense like this before.

"The closest I ever got to playing a role (on offense) as big as I will this year was with Paul Westhead (in Denver) my rookie year," Mutombo says. "He was like, 'We know what the big fella can do on defense. We need to reward him. Give him the ball.'"

But most of the time during his 12 years in the league, teams have viewed Mutombo offensively as an afterthought. Lenny Wilkens gave him some touches in Atlanta, but normally, he's been limited to a handful of sweeping hooks and the occasional putback. That certainly was the case in Philadelphia the last couple of seasons, when Deke watched AI hoist up his 30 or so rocks every night.

"It is a challenge," Mutombo says. "That's something good about this game. You have to accept the challenge. You're trying to push yourself to a high level when you start trying to play basketball, and in the years I've been in the league, challenge is part of the game. I'm going to try and handle it very well. I feel more comfortable, for some reason.

"Maybe because after being traded, it really didn't hit me. I was surprised they did the trade, but after a while, my mind was able to let myself go, and move on."

But Scott and the Nets didn't think twice about bringing Mutombo aboard, even though Scott himself calls Mutombo's hands only "adequate." They were a little more relieved when they were also able to get Rodney Rogers signed to provide the same deep shooting that he gave Boston down the stretch last season.

But Scott insists that the Nets will not operate four on five on offense when Mutombo is on the floor.

"I haven't seen him get a pass yet from Jason when Jason's not looking at him," Scott acknowledges. "I know what he's capable of doing offensively. Obviously, we didn't get him for offensive purposes. We got him to be a big bonus on the defensive end, but I think offensively he'll have a better year than he's had in recent years just because of the style of basketball we play."

When the deal was first announced, Kidd seemed like he wasn't totally sold on the idea of changing things. And that would have been a problem; Kidd and Martin are the unquestioned leaders in New Jersey and if they aren't behind a guy, he's not going to last long. Witness the quick departure of Van Horn, who had a terrible Finals, the last straw of softness for Martin (things were so bad that during timeouts, Martin wouldn't sit next to Van Horn in the huddle) and Kidd.

But both seem like they're now fully sold on Mutombo. Already, Kidd is saying the Mount is New Jersey's Iverson, the Swamp version of Magic, because of how often he's handling the ball.

"It's all about the center," Kidd says. "I just tell him, 'Relax. Every decision you make isn't going to be the perfect one right away.' This is a perfect time. Training camp is the perfect time to make your mistakes. He's already told me, 'I'm seven feet tall. Throw it up there.'

"This is the trial period. This is the time to get a feel for our system. I'm just going to play off of him. It's my job to figure out where he wants the ball, not his job to figure out where I want it."

Given their run to the Finals last season and their busy offseason, the Nets' year will only be a success if they're representing the East again in June. That's what Mutombo wants as well. He played in 79 games in Philly last season, but it felt like 179.

"It was really tough," he says. "During the course of the season, we had so many guys hurt back and forth. It was a lot of weight being put on my shoulders to carry the team during the absence of my teammates. I tried to show up game after game, win or lose. I do feel that I did not get enough credit for that, either from the media or the fans.

"People were very disappointed in Philadelphia because we went to the Finals. And then we lost in the first round. Why did we only win 44 games? People didn't see the fact that guys got hurt. Things went on between Coach (Larry Brown) and Allen. It was so much. I was just glad that I was able to play the way I was able to play."

He will have to play differently than he has ever played before, though, for the move to have been worth it.

David Aldridge is an NBA reporter for ESPN.