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Ten Teams Talking Trades
Posted January 15th ago via True Hoop
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The NBA calendar has two trade "hot spots." One of them is the summer, especially around the draft, in June. The other is the weeks before the NBA trade deadline, coming up on February 21. In other words, now.

So, as we enter that phase, the big question is: Who is going to be active? Which teams are actually going to pull the trigger on some trades? Below is a list of the ten teams that I think are most likely to make deals.

You might assume that such a list would include teams like the Knicks -- who have massive payroll and are terrible. Or perhaps the Nets, who aren't doing much with aging star Jason Kidd and Vince Carter and seem ripe for a re-tool. Certainly the Bulls would be here -- plenty of suckers (like the guy who runs TrueHoop) picked them to win the East, when in fact they have become something of an also-ran. The Magic might want to see if the expiring contracts of Carlos Arroyo and Pat Garrity can be swapped for guard help. The Grizzlies own the rights to one Pau Gasol, who might now be better known for appearing in trade rumors than for playing basketball. Or how about the trade-happy Mavericks, whose short-attention-span owner is always game for some roster tinkering?

All of the above are good candidates to appear in this list. But none of them do. Why? Because in conversations with team personnel, agents, cap experts, and various NBA insiders, we think there are ten teams that are more likely to make some kind of move in the next five weeks.

In the NBA -- a league with a collective bargaining agreement that abhors trades -- the teams that would seem most in need of a good trade or two often stand pat. Figuring out which teams really are likely to move requires more than basketball expertise. It also requires a sense of executives' current thinking, a grasp of which teams are ready to spend money, and salary cap insight (which has been helpfully provided in this instance by ESPN).

There are severa...

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