Nets fans can expect to hear plenty about three players until Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline–Josh Smith, Paul Millsap and Ben Gordon.

While ESPN.com’s Marc Stein predicted that the Nets will be the team that ultimately lands Smith, a league source with knowledge of the team’s thinking believes general manager Billy King was being truthful when he put the probabilities of a trade at “10 percent.”

The Nets have already offered MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries, but are less inclined to part with a first-round pick, rookie Tyshawn Taylor or the draft rights to Bojan Bogdanović, who is having a solid season for Fenerbahçe in Turkey.

Basically any offer the Nets can put together will be based around Humphries’ salary (he is owed $12 million next season, as well), Brooks’ promise and the aforementioned assets.

Humphries and Brooks both told HOOPSWORLD that they want to stay with the Nets, and while the latter seemed nervous about the topic, the former has been through this before.

“Been here for awhile,” said Humphries, who has been dealt three times in his career. “It’s not up to the players.”

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski wrote that the Nets are “solely focused” on Smith, but the aforementioned source said that is definitely not the case.

In the case of negotiations with the Charlotte Bobcats for Gordon, that seems more like a safety plan for the Nets. They don’t necessarily lack depth in the backcourt (both C.J. Watson and Taylor have played well lately and Keith Bogans has been productive all season) but he would add some perimeter shooting and a nice scoring punch off the bench.

Presumably the Nets would hope to get Gordon for Humphries and not much else.

Acquiring Millsap from the Jazz will be particularly difficult for the Nets because Utah is getting some pretty serious offers. According to Ramona Shelburne and Stein, the Clippers and Jazz have had talks about a trade involving Eric Bledsoe and “either young center DeAndre Jordan or veteran forward Caron Butler.”

The Nets’ package probably wouldn’t rival that offer.

In the end, the Nets may not make any move at all.

—Alex Raskin