LOOKING AHEAD

It’s a long time to the Feb. 21 trade deadline, but with preseason optimism gone and players who just signed free-agent contracts eligible to be traded, teams are sorting through their options . . . only six weeks after the press sorted through their options.

No, not that option.

“You might see things start happening a little more,” Orlando GM Otis Smith said, “maybe with Kobe [Bryant], if there’s anything there.”

This suggests Smith gets his news from ESPN, with the Lakers resolute and, for the moment, Kobe no longer looking like he’s tunneling under the wall.

More likely to move: Mike Bibby, Ron Artest, Brad Miller, Jermaine O’Neal, Jamaal Tinsley, Pau Gasol, Andre Miller, Jason Kidd (but not in a fire sale), any Knick, any Bobcat, any Heat except Dwyane Wade and any Bull except Luol Deng.

As Tinsley might say, “Let’s party!”