It isn't particularly encouraging to the Bullets that Milwaukee and Chicago have replaced Houston and San Antonio in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association.

It was going to be tough enough for the Bullets to get into the playoffs as it was, but the Bucks and Bulls are young, rising teams, while the Spurs and Rockets are in difficult transition periods.

The Bulls could be a sleeper with their massive front line of 6-foot-9 Larry Kenon, 6-9 1/2 David Greenwood and 7-2 Artis Gilmore. Rookie guards Ronnie Lester and Sam Worthen are just what 6-7 off-guard Reggie Theus has been longing for.

The big question with Lester is the knee he injured three times last year. It's held up so far in training camp and Lester is living up to his billing as the best guard in this year's draft.

One of the big experiments of the exhibition season has been the move of Walter Davis to guard by the Phoenix Suns to team with newly acquired Dennis Johnson. That prompts the question: Who the heck will play small forward now?


It's Truck Robinson, with 6-10 Jeff Cook moving in as the power forward.

Davis is having a slow, frustrating asdjustment to the backcourt, but Coach John MacLeod says he will be patient.

The third guard is Kyle Macy, the Kentucky all-America the Suns drafted as a future two drafts ago with a pick they got from the Bullets for Steve Malovic.