OKLAHOMA CITY -- New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn said Wednesday night that the team is discussing potential trades as the NBA's deadline for deals approaches, but he offered no specifics.

Andrew Cohoon / Associated Press

George Shinn.

Shinn, speaking before the annual March of Dimes Sports Headliner awards banquet at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum, said he had spoken earlier in the day with team officials including general manager Jeff Bower, about trade possibilities.

The league's trade deadline is Thursday.

"There's a lot of talk going on," Shinn said. "I've been through this about 20 years. Sometimes you hear stuff and you get excited and it never happens. The best thing to do is not even talk about it, just relax, and bam, something could happen. I'm just leaving it up to Jeff."

The Hornets made a significant deal before last season's deadline, swapping forward Bostjan Nachbar to the New Jersey Nets for front-line help in the form of 6-foot-10 Marc Jackson and 6-foot-8 Linton Johnson.

One major difference this season is that the Hornets, who moved to 26-29 with a 111-107 win at New Jersey on Wednesday, have little room underneath the NBA salary cap with which to make a deal.

The Hornets started Wednesday in a three-way tie for ninth place in the Western Conference standings and trailed the Minnesota Timberwolves by one-half game for eighth place. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

New Orleans would have started Wednesday in eighth place if not for a 104-100 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night.

"We feel like, we don't have a great team, but we've got a good team," Shinn said. "It would be nice to get a good, solid veteran that can help right now, but I'm leaving that all up (to Bower). This stretch we're going through, we should have won last night. I heard the coach really give them a good blistering last night, so let's see what happens tonight."

Shinn said he didn't attend the NBA All-Star game on Sunday in Las Vegas, but that a significant number of Hornets staffers did. New Orleans will host next season's event.

Shinn said "we're going to have to wait and see" how well New Orleans, which still is recovering from Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, fares as the All-Star game host.

"The situation is, they've got quite an act to follow to be able to shine as brightly as Vegas did," he said. "Historically, before the storm, they were really good. They've got the (hotel) rooms and everything. Hopefully they'll be able to get everything ironed out. At least I hope so."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)