<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Matt Harpring rolled his eyes even before hearing the end of the question. "Here we go again," the Jazz forward sighed. "Must be that time of year." Yep. Soon after Valentine's Day, a little before St. Patrick's Day, comes an occasion that is far less festive but potentially much more notable for players like Harpring and teams like the Jazz: the NBA trade deadline. The cutoff arrives Thursday at 1 p.m. MST, and amid a cacophony of trade rumors involving All-Star veterans and championship contenders, the Jazz are quietly operating at the margins, taking calls and floating names. "It's an uphill battle to get something done these days, but we're working on it," Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations, said before departing for the All-Star Weekend in Houston. "A lot of teams are looking for a lot of the same things, so it's not easy. . . . You talk, you try to match things up, you suggest a lot of things that go nowhere." Yet the fact that the Jazz are trying to go somewhere this season - specifically, to the playoffs, a destination they have missed the past two seasons - makes O'Connor's job a little more urgent, but a little easier, too. In a shift of the team's roster-building strategy, O'Connor said, the Jazz are now willing to make a move specifically designed for reaching the postseason. </div> <div align="center">Source</div>
