Jazz pare pair after first round of cuts

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Kevin Lyde has been around the block often enough to know that surviving the first round of cuts by an NBA team means nothing.

Still, he's putting off the possibility of playing overseas in order to see if nothing can develop into something.

"I've got to play this out first," said Lyde, a free agent center who accompanied the Jazz to California for its final two games of the preseason, one coming tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers in Anaheim and another coming Thursday night vs. the Lakers in San Diego. "I put all my marbles in the bag here, until they tell me otherwise."

Lyde was the lone free-agent survivor Monday, when the Jazz released forwards Damone Brown and Donnell Harvey to reduce their roster size to the NBA limit of 15.

Brown — a Syracuse University product who has logged 39 NBA games for Philadelphia, Toronto, New Jersey and Washington — appeared in five exhibitions with the Jazz, averaging 0.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 8.4 minutes per game.

Harvey — a University of Florida product who has appeared in 205 games with Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Phoenix and New Jersey — missed part of the preseason due to an intestinal flu. He played in just two exhibition games for Utah, averaging 2.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 9.5 minutes.

That leaves Lyde, an undrafted 2002 Temple University product who has spent four of the previous five seasons in the NBA Development League but has never appeared in a regular-season NBA game.

He's also played in Argentina, China and Italy.

The Jazz, who must submit their regular-season roster to the league by Monday, have not said if they plan to carry 14 or 15 players when the season opens Oct. 30 at Golden State.

If 27-year-old Lyde makes it as the 15th, it will only be because the beefy but trimmed-down big man's feelings for the game have inspired him to continue chasing a dream.

"I love the game of basketball," he said. "When you love it, you just have a passion for it. ... Nothing else drives me but the love for the game.

"I love to play the game, watch the game," Lyde added. "I just love everything about the game of basketball."

HARPRING UPDATE: He is officially listed as "out" for tonight, but backup small forward Matt Harpring said Monday he isn't sure whether or not he'll play in either, both or neither of the Jazz's two preseason games against the Lakers this week.