Win, lose or give away?

With just less than a month before the NBA's trade deadline (Feb. 18), there are a lot of names out on the rumor mill who could swap jerseys.

Among the biggest names include Amare Stoudemire, Tracy McGrady and Carlos Boozer.

Stoudemire has seemingly been on the trading block for the past three years, and with the Phoenix Suns' unwillingness to pull the trigger on any of the fairly decent offers they have received to this point, it makes me doubt anything will happen this year either. However, with Stoudemire in the last year of his contract, a slight crack in the door for a deal is still there.

Boozer has basically been in the same situation with the Utah Jazz. But, even with a big contract that is expiring, a contender could take a flight risk and nab Boozer for a couple months to make a late playoff push, then dump him to clear up salary cap space in the offseason for one of the big name free agents this summer.

Speaking of dumping salaries, that's what it appears my hometown Houston Rockets would like to do with Tracy McGrady's broken-down, $23.2 million monster that even the largest of blankets can't cover.

McGrady has voiced his displeasure with the team and has been ready to be shipped elsewhere, and with some of the rumored trades in the works for him, the Rockets should jump at the chance to unload the injury-prone star.

A couple weeks ago, it looked like the Milwaukee Bucks were set to swap Michael Redd for McGrady, but a season-ending injury put a stop to that.

Some of the other names that have been thrown in the mix as trade possibilities are Chris Bosh, Kevin Martin and Andre Iguodala. Any one of these players would be a significant upgrade over what T-Mac has been able to provide the past couple seasons, but with the monster contract, other players have to be "thrown in" to match up salary numbers, which could be a big obstruction to getting a deal done.

Now, moving on to my other favorite team: the Pacers.

I have read all sorts of articles ranging from suggesting the team should tank the rest of the year to get a high draft pick to exhibiting hope that the return of Danny Granger could provide a spark to launch the team to the playoffs.

While I am writing this the Pacers are heading for defeat against the Miami Heat, which would give them a 14-27 record on the season, but it would still leave them only 5 games out of the No. 8 spot with half the season to go.

To be honest, there are just too many teams ahead of them and not enough talent currently on the team to realistically make that push.

However, I am not now -- nor will I ever be -- a proponent for tanking a season in any sport, or on any level.

One thing the Pacers could do is try to highlight some of the players that could be traded in the next month, then pull the trigger on a couple deals to truly start the rebuilding process and pick up a couple contracts that will expire at the end of the year to clear cap space this summer.

For the past few seasons he Pacers have been in the "one player away" mode, but have not drafted all that well, and have been a bit unwise in its free agent decisions.

Granted, at this point Granger is about the only "untouchable" player on the roster, but Troy Murphy has been playing well and is attracting some suitors, and if they can find a sucker to take on Mike Dunleavy's contract in the process, they shouldn't blink at the idea.

In all reality, the Pacers are a couple moves away from being able truly start anew and get back on track to doing what fans here in basketball country have been anticipating for almost half a decade, and that is fielding a consistent, competitive team.

But, the biggest tell as to the direction of nearly every team in the NBA will be exposed within the next month, depending on what happens at the trade deadline.