Hope comes in many forms in the NBA. There is the clean slate of training camp, which now is mere days away. There is the possibility of a playoff chase. And then there is the ultimate false hope -- the promise of salary cap space.

The Hawks played the cap space hand for most of last season as they careened to 26-56. The only team that entered the summer with more cap room than Atlanta ($18 million) was Charlotte, which had $24.5 million in its evolution from an expansion pay scale.

The payoff for the Hawks? The $6.8 million they will bestow this season on Speedy Claxton, a backup point guard masquerading as a starter, as well as spare change spent on Lorenzen Wright, who is loosely considered an NBA center.

Granted, not every team with significant space was a summer spectator. The Bulls turned their $17 million into upgraded (albeit overpriced) potential with Ben Wallace.

The Hornets transformed their $16.5 million nest egg into Peja Stojakovic and Bobby Jackson. And Toronto sprinkled its $12.5 million among Fred Jones, Anthony Parker, Jorge Garbajosa and other foreign intrigue.

And granted, no other team had to operate under the court restrictions necessitated by Atlanta's ugly ownership struggle.

But the bottom line is, cap space is illusory. Most top-tier players re-up before the free-agent period. The draft class of 2003 stands as the latest example, with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh out of reach for at least another four seasons.

Similarly, enough already with the heralding of salary cap exceptions created by trades. For every trade exception that turns into something tangible, such as the Pacers' play for Al Harrington, countless millions in trade exceptions expire with little of the fanfare that accompanied their creation.

This summer, the Suns ($3.6 million) and 76ers ($4.5 million) each allowed trade exceptions to shrivel up. Though Phoenix hardly needed to bolster an already loaded core, the same could not be said for Philadelphia, where general manager Billy King was unable to harvest anything with the slot created by last summer's trade of Marc Jackson to the Nets.

Already, the Grizzlies, Sonics and Bucks are positioned with more than $10 million in cap space for next summer. If lottery reality hits home in Memphis, Seattle or Milwaukee, expect all three to point to the hope of impending cap space.

It is, after all, the opiate of the NBA, one that all too often produces nothing more than an empty feeling.