Thursday, Feb. 24 (at noon Pacific) is the 2011 NBA trade deadline, which means some deals will start going down but more frequently an insane number of rumors will be appearing at a record pace over the next two weeks. The most notable rumors will involve Carmelo Anthony, and in fact the rumors have already been flying in regards to Anthony. One minute the Nuggets are looking at a three-team deal with the Knicks and a few minutes later they've made headway on a trade with the Lakers that involves Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest. When in doubt, believe nothing.
The Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings are long, long shots to land Carmelo Anthony, but that doesn't mean they won't be active leading up to the trade deadline. The Warriors have a decent number of expiring contracts and have reportedly inquired about the availability of Nuggets center Nene. Let the rumors begin! Throw in the idea of potentially dealing Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry and rebuilding around just one of them and the rumors could flow over the next two weeks.
The Sacramento Kings have a ton of cap space, which could enable deals with just about anybody in the league if they wanted. Of course, with a potentially cash-strapped owner it remains to be seen how much they'd be willing to take on in veteran contracts. They are in the midst of a rebuilding project so they also want to tread somewhat lightly in order to avoid weighing themselves down with bad contracts or bad apples.
And who knows, maybe one of the two teams will shock the world by swooping in to land Carmelo Anthony. I wouldn't hold my breath for it, but sports can be a wildly unpredictable thing sometimes.