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."

The Jazz's chips in a play for Maggette may include shooting guard Gordan Giricek, ex-BYU center Rafael Araujo and his expiring contract and any of their own future first-round draft picks (they still have them all).

If the Clippers would want more than that for Maggette, though, Utah apparently has little else of note it would be willing to offer in a two-club swap.

The Jazz also have a future first-round selection originally owned by the New York Knicks, but it's one they seem reluctant to deal. It is protected through No. 24 this year, through No. 23 in 2008 and through No. 22 in '09. But it's unprotected in 2010, and current reality suggests that's probably when Utah will be able to, and want to, use it.

Teams earlier this season tried to pry rookie power forward Paul Millsap from the Jazz, but since then they've backed off because Utah's undisclosed demands for the strong-playing second-round selection were deemed too high.

As for Kirilenko, who insists he has no desire to leave Utah, O'Connor ruled out nothing. NBA greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal and Wilt Chamberlain, the Jazz's basketball boss reminded, were all traded at one point or another in their careers. But, O'Connor was quick to add, the Jazz went into deadline week with no intention of dealing the 2004 All-Star.

"Look, I would trade me if I got the right offer," O'Connor said. "But are we looking to trade Andrei? No ... It's not fair to say he's 'on the trade block,' because he's not."

Kirilenko, incidentally, was ranked No. 3 Wednesday behind Boston's Paul Pierce and Portland's Zach Randolph on SI.com's photo gallery of so-called "Players Needing a Change of Scenery."

Maggette is No. 4 on the same list.

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NBA trading deadline

When: Today, 1 p.m. MST

• Nets discuss dealing Jason Kidd and Vince Carter

• Jazz pursuing Corey Maggette, but will Clippers trade?

• Kings debating whether to move point guard Mike Bibby

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com