If the Jazz don't make a trade today, it won't be for lack of trying.

On the eve of this afternoon's in-season deadline for dealing in the NBA, Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor remained quite open to the possibility of getting something done.

"I wouldn't say there's anything real substantive going," O'Connor said late Wednesday afternoon, "but I'm reluctant to say, 'No, nothing."'

O'Connor — who did address the issue of forward Andrei Kirilenko's availability status — would not address specific players he might be pursuing. But when asked about one in particular in whom the Jazz are known to have an interest — shooting guard Corey Maggette of the Los Angeles Clippers — Utah's basketball boss did offer this nugget:

"We'll continue to have talks until 1 p.m.," he said.

The Jazz won't be alone.

Maggette — who actually procured his current six-year, $42 million contract as an offer sheet from Utah, only to have it matched by the Clippers when he was a restricted free agent in 2003 — has been the subject of frequent trade talk this season.

Two of the hottest names being bandied about in league-wide chatter Wednesday, though, were New Jersey guards Jason Kidd and Vince Carter.

Sports Illustrated's Marty Burns reported on the magazine's Web site, SI.com, that — beyond the much-rumored Los Angeles Lakers, who "appeared unwilling" to give up young big man Andrew Bynum — the Clippers "also were said to be a possibility" for Kidd "in a straight-up deal involving Maggette and point guard Shaun Livingston, though the same source said L.A. was unwilling to part with Livingston."

Burns also reported that "a league insider says that the Knicks have held discussions with New Jersey for Carter in particular."

ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Chris Sheridan, both quite well-connected, also weighed in on the Maggette matter Wednesday night.

But neither mentioned the Jazz, whose six-game win streak ended Tuesday at Portland. Utah is idle until playing Friday at Denver.

Wrote Sheridan: "Carter also was looking at a possible relocation to Los Angeles, to the Clippers. But for the Nets to make such a trade, they'd have to get back Shaun Livingston — a player the Clips had refused to part with in earlier talks between the teams — along with Maggette."

Wrote Stein: "The Clippers never looked more like a (miserable) team waiting for a trade than they did in their humbling home defeat to Phoenix on Tuesday night. Yet the signals I'm getting from Clipperland continue to suggest that Maggette — still a Donald Sterling favorite, remember — isn't going anywhere. I should note, however, that the most recent of those signals came before Tuesday's debacle of a loss to the Suns. The word at that hour was that (Clippers owner) Sterling has made it clear he expects coach Mike Dunleavy to reach a truce with Maggette and start getting this group playing the way it did in the franchise breakthrough of last season that suddenly seems forever ago."