Haley’s ‘Scoop’ on Trade Is Up Against the Clock

I talked to Jack Haley and Mitch Kupchak on Monday, and now you know why I need to take so many days off.

The NBA trading deadline is Thursday, and Haley has already traded three Lakers, including Caron Butler, to Utah, predicting the announcement will be forthcoming in less than 24 hours, while Kupchak says he hasn’t brought up Butler’s name to Utah, and hasn’t even talked to Utah about a trade.

Kupchak is the Lakers’ general manager, and he made it clear he’s done nothing, and I’ve been saying that for some time.

Maybe Phil Jackson is calling the shots in preparation for his return, talking to Jeanie, who is relaying it to her dad, who is sharing it with one of Dennis Rodman’s babes, which explains how it got to Haley. These are the Lakers, you know, and anything is possible: even breaking news from Haley.

Haley says the big three-for-one Laker trade is going to happen any hour now, while Kupchak says not so fast. Who’s telling the truth?

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IT’S PRETTY well accepted around here that Haley knows nothing, so I wasn’t surprised when he told the “Southern California Sports Report” audience Friday night he had learned something.

He reported from the NBA All-Star game festivities in Denver that a source told him, and keep in mind he still talks to Rodman, the Lakers were interested in making a three-for-one trade.

He didn’t name the players or the other team involved, he said, making it the Big TV Tease, because his source asked him to keep it quiet. So for all we know the other team involved could have been Rodman’s Long Beach Jam, and the Lakers were going to send three stiffs to Long Beach -- they got plenty to pick from these days, and for some time now I’ve maintained that’s where Devean George belongs.

On Saturday’s TV report from Denver, Haley said the Lakers were also talking to Sacramento about trading Lamar Odom for Peja Stojakovic and an injured Bobby Jackson. He said he didn’t think the Lakers had an interest in trading Odom, but “the trade was discussed,” he said, “and it’s out there.”

As for the three-for-one trade, he said, “his hands were tied,” and he could say no more. I’m wondering -- is February one of those sweeps months on TV?

Sunday the sources were working overtime. TNT had its own source and reported the Lakers had offered Odom to Sacramento for Stojakovic, and who knew TNT got its news from watching the “Southern California Sports Report”?

Haley, meanwhile, was telling his audience that the Odom deal with Sacramento, as he had suggested earlier, was probably dead. I’m sure the Lakers were relieved to hear that.

At the end of the All-Star game, Haley reported it was a done deal -- the Lakers were going to trade Butler, Vlade Divac and George to Utah for Carlos Boozer. There’s probably an Emmy in this for Haley, or once again a seat on the bench.

“In my opinion,” Haley said Monday by telephone in a follow-up to his Sunday night TV report, “it was a done deal. I said at the time the deal would happen in the next 24 or 48 hours, or by the [Thursday] trade deadline. I thought it would happen quickly. It could blow up, but I know what’s gone on.

“And I stand by my report 110%.”

Tick, tick, tick ... less than 24 hours, Jack.

You know, I always worry about people who give 110% or stand by their reports 110%, which suggests they might have a tendency to embellish.

“I know what you’re going to do,” Haley said. “I didn’t want to talk with you, because you’re going to direct a personal attack at me

Whether it happens or not is everything if you’re a journalist, and if you treasure your credibility. Sorry, I know that’s a personal attack.

As for Kupchak, you know me, I wouldn’t dare (tick) off the Lakers, so I went easy, of course, on Mr. Milquetoast, the guy who is responsible for putting together this disappointing team that might not finish above .500.

“My turn, huh?” Kupchak said, and sooner or later everyone gets a visit from Page 2. “At this time, no, there is nothing about to happen. When it comes to trading, there are some deals you have to kind of nurture, but we don’t even have a deal we’re nurturing.”

Haley says the Lakers are going to trade Butler & Co. to Utah, and there has also been talk about Odom and Sacramento.

“I can tell you we have not offered either player [Odom and Butler] in a trade, and have not talked to Sacramento or Utah about a trade,” Kupchak said.

Tick, tick, tick ... in time we’re going to know who had it right.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to improve at any of our starting positions by the trading deadline,” Kupchak said. “I think we do have to add a significant player or two, well, at least one, but more than likely that will happen in the off-season.

“By significant player I mean one of our top six or seven players. If we can make a deal to help our playoff chances this season, not jeopardize the future and add a veteran with a year on his contract, that could help.”

Kupchak said he’d like the team’s new coach to have a say in the kind of players added or traded away, and because the team doesn’t know who the coach will be, it’s another reason why he doesn’t expect the Lakers to make a blockbuster deal.

“Whatever we do, we don’t want to jeopardize our youth and the direction we want to go with this team,” he said. “We have three young players in Kobe [Bryant], Lamar and Caron to build around.”

That doesn’t sound like a GM on the brink of trading one of the big three, which you’d think would make the next few hours pretty nerve-racking for Haley.

“Not in the least,” Haley said. “I know what I know.”

Right now he seems to know more than anyone else ... tick, tick, tick.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.