NBA Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Potential Deals After All-Star Weekend

Now that the 2017 NBA All-Star Weekend is in the books, it's time to focus our full attention on the rapidly closing trade market.

The NBA's draft deadline is 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 23. If teams—whether buying or selling—are looking to make a deal before the offseason, they'll need to do it by that time. Naturally, we should expect a fair amount of activity in the coming days.

In fact, we've already had one blockbuster trade unfold. The Sacramento Kings have traded away star forward DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans. According to ESPN's Marc Stein, the Kings will get a bevy of players and picks in return:

What other headline-grabbing deals might occur before Thursday's deadline? Let's dig through the latest buzz and rumors and try to figure that out.

Celtics Looking to Make Blockbuster Deal?

The Pelicans got themselves a nice piece to build around by acquiring Cousins. It appears that the Boston Celtics are looking to do the same, if they're going to do a deal at all before the deadline.

“Anything is possible as you know,” one Eastern Conference executive told A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. “But they’re not Toronto which is basically 'all in' this year to try and get past Cleveland. Boston’s in the thick of it all, but not pressed to do anything unless it makes them a lot better and to be frank, there aren’t a lot of those potential deals out there for them.”

Blakely lists Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls and Paul George of the Indiana Pacers as the type of players the Celtics would be looking to acquire.

The reason the Celtics would only be looking to trade for a premier talent like Butler or George is because a marginal player isn't likely to make the team much better. Boston currently holds the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and should threaten the Cleveland Cavaliers for the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs.

Adding a top-tier talent, though, could make the Celtics a type of super team in the mold of the Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors.

Carmelo Now Appears to Be Staying Put

A couple of weeks ago, it seemed all but certain that the New York Knicks would be parting ways with all-star Carmelo Anthony.

"[Team president Phil] Jackson is determined to rid the roster of Anthony and his contract and start rebuilding around Kristaps Porzingis, league sources said," The Vertical's Chris Mannix and Adrian Wojnarowski wrote earlier this month.

While Jackson may be wanting to move on from Anthony, any deal would have required Anthony to waive the no-trade clause in his contract. With mere days remaining before the trade deadline, it doesn't appear this is going to happen.

"The Knicks have not brought anything to [Anthony’s] group that would inspire them to really want to waive this no-trade clause,” Wojnarowski recently said. “Most of the teams who had interest in him are looking in other directions right now and expect Melo to remain in New York, at least for the rest of this season.”

An Anthony trade has always felt like somewhat of a long shot, given the presence of the no-trade clause. However, it has remained one of the juicier rumors because of his status as a headline player.

Now, though, it appears the rumor can all but be laid to rest.

Pistons Still Shopping Reggie Jackson

Point Guard Reggie Jackson seems to be the type of ascending player an NBA team would like to build with. He's averaging a solid 15.2 points per game this season and he's only 26 years old. However, the Detroit Pistons seem quite interested in moving him, even if the team doesn't want to admit it.

According to ESPN's Marc Stein, the Pistons have discussed trading Jackson to the Orlando Magic:

This isn't the first time this season the Pistons have discussed moving Jackson, either. However, as Stein has pointed out, Detroit publicly backtracked on such talk the last time around:

"

The Pistons could elect to keep Jackson, but Orlando is the second confirmed team that Detroit has engaged on a potential Jackson trade. Last month, ESPN.com reported that the Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves had discussed a multiplayer swap featuring Jackson and Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio, which a day later prompted Pistons coach and team president Stan Van Gundy to publicly assure Jackson he wouldn't be dealt to Minnesota.

"

With the latest trade rumor coming to light, it will be hard for Van Gundy to deny that Jackson might not have a future in Detroit. Perhaps when he assured Jackson that he wouldn't be going to Minnesota, Van Gundy simply meant that he'd make sure to trade him elsewhere.