NBA Begins Season Without Big Names, But With Big Bucks : Pro basketball: Stepping into the spotlight when the 1993-94 season starts Friday night are a large group of large players.

After losing its biggest names and signing its largest contracts, the NBA begins a new season relying on some huge players to sustain the growth it has enjoyed for a decade.

Gone are Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird--players who used skill and intelligence, rather than power.

Jordan’s shocking retirement this month leaves a major void, not only in the NBA’s visibility, but in its talent in the open court. And the offseason deaths of Reggie Lewis and Drazen Petrovic took away two more players who brought something to the league besides brawn.

Stepping into the spotlight when the 1993-94 season starts Friday night are a large group of large players. Their talents, while impressive, don’t feature the flair of Jordan, the passing of Johnson or the cocky 3-point wizardry of Bird.

The last eight NBA Finals MVPs were Jordan (three times), Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, James Worthy, Johnson and Bird.

There’s not a power player in that bunch, but the top stars in today’s NBA--Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, Shawn Kemp and Brad Daugherty--use strength as the essence of their games.

Superior quickness gives them the edge over other players their size. Guile is not their style.

Look again, and you’ll notice that except for Portland’s Clyde Drexler, they are the key players on the teams expected to contend for NBA championships--if not this season, then in the near future.

Look further and you’ll see that the Chicago Bulls are not considered to be contenders. Winners of three straight titles, the Bulls’ remaining talent and experience may get Chicago into the playoffs, but not out of the Eastern Conference.

“Our season has taken on a new dimension,” Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. “We have a new set of goals in finding a new way to win with a new set of players . . . We are a longshot to win the title. I heard we went from 5-2 to 25-1 in Las Vegas.”

Jordan’s missing 30 points is just the beginning of Jackson’s problems.

“We are going to be in trouble at times offensively, but against certain teams in certain situations, there might be an even bigger loss on defense,” Jackson said. “Pressing defense has been our norm, and Michael has been a key to that. He won NBA defensive player of the year once, but he probably deserved to win it more than that.”

The emphasis placed on defense by the Bulls and Detroit Pistons in winning the last five NBA titles has made an impact on players’ and coaches’ thinking throughout the league.

“Defense is going to be the key,” Barkley said. “You can tell by the way we’re training that we’re emphasizing defense more. I think that, sooner or later, the Western Conference is going to change that myth that that’s the difference between the East and West.”

Coach Paul Westphal scoffed at Barkley’s suggestion that the Suns can win 70 games, but he added, “I wouldn’t trade our team for any in the league.”

The Portland Trail Blazers, criticized for not having the intelligence to match their talent, added free-agent center Chris Dudley, most recently of New Jersey but formerly of Yale, for defense and rebounding.

“Chris and Buck Williams give us a lot of toughness defensively,” coach Rick Adelman said. “We have three guards in Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter and Rod Strickland, and we have six guys up front who have to sort themselves out. The guys who defend are the guys who are going to play.”

Seattle, Houston, San Antonio and Utah are the other top teams in the West, led by athletic body-slammers Kemp, Olajuwon, Robinson and Malone.

Golden State hoped to sneak in among the contenders, but season-ending knee injuries by guards Tim Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis means another frustrating season for coach Don Nelson despite the arrival of rookie Chris Webber.

The SuperSonics were bolstered by a trade for guard Kendall Gill, the Spurs traded All-Star forward Sean Elliott for two-time NBA rebounding champ Dennis Rodman, and the Trail Blazers dealt disgruntled center Kevin Duckworth to Washington for forward Harvey Grant.

In the Eastern Conference, which is more directly affected by the retirement of Jordan, veteran teams like New York and Cleveland could be challenged by the young warriors of Charlotte and Orlando.

O’Neal and Mourning, possibly the two best centers ever to enter the NBA at the same time, have better supporting casts.

The Magic, who won the NBA draft lottery in consecutive years, wound up with Anfernee Hardaway and signed him to a $64 million deal that rivaled Webber’s contract. Hardaway is expected to start immediately at guard, kicking Nick Anderson to forward and making Dennis Scott a sixth man.

Mourning has the luxury of concentrating on providing the Hornets with inside strength now that the public-relations spotlight is on teammate Larry Johnson, who signed an $84 million, 12-year contract extension. Charlotte also picked up 20-point scorer Hersey Hawkins from Philadelphia to replace Gill.

“The Mourning-O’Neal matchup is shaping up like Russell-Chamberlain,” said Hornets coach Allan Bristow. “It’s a natural rivalry geographically and they have similar styles. But I still consider New York and Cleveland the elite teams in the East. The way we’ve accumulated talent in the last few years, we should be a factor, if not this year, then next year. We should be among the elite.”

Cleveland, knocked out of the playoffs by Chicago four times since 1988, including twice on buzzer-beating shots by Jordan, figure to benefit the most from his departure. Their new coach, Mike Fratello, says the Cavaliers aren’t alone.

“A lot of teams have been haunted by Michael Jordan, not just the Cleveland Cavaliers,” Fratello said. “No one in the league was able to dethrone him.”

New York, last season’s conference runner-up, hopes to ride its defense, the best in the NBA a year ago behind Ewing, Charles Oakley, John Starks and Anthony Mason, to the NBA championship.

“We aspire to the title, and that’s a goal of ours, but it’s not the be-all, end-all of the season,” coach Pat Riley said. “There are a lot of teams aspiring to the title. But it’s a mistake to assume it’s going to be easy just because Michael Jordan retired.”

Life off the court has a good chance to be easy for Johnson, Hardaway, Webber and Shawn Bradley, the Philadelphia 76ers’ new 7-foot-6 center. All four signed contracts in excess of $40 million, and since Johnson is the only one with NBA experience, many fear the trend toward huge, long-term contracts.

“My concern with these contracts is that in four or five years, will these players still be motivated?” said Atlanta’s Lenny Wilkens.

“These contracts are very dangerous,” Milwaukee coach Mike Dunleavy said. “Teams are playing Russian roulette giving $60-$70-$80 million contracts to players who haven’t really proved themselves. I’m shocked by these contracts, and some of them are going to be mistakes. I don’t see how teams are going to survive under the salary cap if they do turn out to be mistakes.”