While the New York Post’s Peter Vescey claims the Lakers recently made overtures towards the Nets for Jason Kidd (“Chris Mihm, Aaron McKie, etc. The only L.A. player of consequence mentioned was rookie guard Jordan Farmar”), it’s Vince Carter that Poison Pete predicts will be shipped out of the Swamp prior to the trade deadline. However, Jersey GM Rod Thorn tells the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro that’s easier said than done.

For weeks now, the Nets’ interest in Memphis center Pau Gasol has been of league-wide interest, but it’s a dead end now. Thorn (above) almost admits as much: “What they’re looking for is a good young talent or two with small contracts, plus someone with an expiring contract” to make the salaries match, he explained. “That’s really about it.”

He cannot comment on anything pertaining to Gasol, but the Nets do not have the pieces to make such a deal, according to other NBA executives familiar with GM Jerry West’s shopping list.

What Thorn also cannot say is this: The Grizzlies have no interest whatsoever in Vince Carter. Their interests don’t extend beyond Richard Jefferson and Nenad Krstic, and you can’t deal guys who are still months away from getting their uniforms back.

Which means West is taking his business elsewhere — probably to Chicago, where the Grizzlies can get a young star (Luol Deng or Ben Gordon), a player they can develop (Tyrus Thomas or Thabo Sefolosha) plus a draft pick and a veteran with an expiring contract (P.J. Brown).

Note to Jason Kidd : if you disrespect the mother of your children, the karmic payback might be, I dunno, three one-point losses in a row?

Newly annointed Eastern Conference All-Star Gilbert Arenas, showing remarkable humility and perspective, openly fantasizes about sticking it to Mike Krzyzewski and putting up crazy numbers against Duke.

“One college game that’s five fouls, right? 40-minute game at Duke, they got soft rims I’d probably score 84 or 85,” Arenas wrote on his NBA.com blog. “I wouldn’t pass the ball. I wouldn’t even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person.”

Funny, I tried doing that in NBA Live and it didn’t work out nearly so well. Perhaps I should’ve chosen a player other than Nate Robinson.

Michael David Smith reports that Tractor Traylor is facing a prison sentence for dodgy tax returns. Wesley Snipes and Rollie Fingers both agree, the Tractor clearly received some very bad advice.

Tim Floyd, he of the 49-190 record coaching Chicago’s post-Jordan/Pippen squads has certainly landed on his feet on USC, despite being what the LA Times’ T.J. Simers calls “the Bulls’ version of Steve Bartman.”

“It was terrible,” Floyd said, while rubbing his forehead ” so hard at one point that it appeared he was trying to wipe the memories away.

“[Jerry Krause] called and wanted me to come to the NBA Finals in 1996; he was thinking of making the move then because he thought the team was getting old and it was time ” even though they just won the title,” Floyd said. “I told him I didn’t want any part of it. I wanted it to die a natural death until Phil walked away on his own.”

Jackson stayed for two more years, two more titles and Floyd continued to be regarded as the heavy waiting in the wings to break it all up. Then Jackson called it quits, Floyd took over, “and we became an expansion team,” Floyd said.