Who plays? Who sits? Keep an eye on these players

	After playing in Israel last year, Anthony Parker is hoping to find playing time with the NBA's Raptors this season. AP

For most NBA fans, there's a serious lack of a "wow" factor during the preseason. Rookies are trying to impress the coaching staff. Veterans are working their way into shape. A few players are trying to get their timing back after being sidelined with injuries. Nothing to generate huge headlines.

But look a little deeper, below the surface of games in which the outcome is essentially meaningless, and you'll see playing rotations taking shape.

On many teams, the composition of the starting five was obvious by August. But those extra rotation spots -- six through eight or nine on most teams -- are there for the taking. And players who have spent time on the outside looking in are battling to get into the rotation.

"If I'm starting or coming off the bench, I just want to be in the rotation," Kendrick Perkins, a fourth-year center for the Celtics, recently told the Boston Herald. "I want to know I'm going to be able to contribute."

Perkins, who started 40 games last season, is in competition with newly acquired veteran Theo Ratliff for the Celtics' starting center spot. Ratliff, whose shot-blocking prowess has been his calling card during 11 productive seasons, would like to start but figures that he and Perkins will be sharing the center minutes either way.

Not every player has such a comfort zone.

It has been seven years since Anthony Parker was in an NBA training camp. The former first-round pick of the Nets in 1997 spent three injury-riddled seasons in the NBA with Philadelphia and Orlando from 1997 to 2000 but was never healthy enough to solidify a spot in the league.

So Parker, the older brother of University of Tennessee star Candace Parker (the next big thing in women's basketball, folks), took his game on the road, becoming a major star for Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel, one of the superpowers of European Cup basketball. With new Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo giving his team a decidedly European flavor, it made sense for Parker, now 31, to give the NBA another try.

"Anthony is a high character and experienced player that has proven over several years now that he belongs in the NBA," Colangelo said.

Parker is battling another Raptors newcomer, former Pacers guard Fred Jones, for a spot in the team's revamped starting lineup. Both appear to have the inside track over Joey Graham, the second-year man from Oklahoma State. The winner of this battle could join mainstay Morris Peterson as lucky wing players converting easy baskets on passes from certified blur T.J. Ford.

Here are some other battles to watch closely as the preseason chugs along: