"Utah Jazz starting point guard Devin Harris was absent from Friday morning's practice, as he was sent home with a stomach virus and deemed a gametime decision for Saturday's matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

To be clear, though, Harris was far and away the dominant topic of conversation.

First, there was his dreadful performance against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, punctuated by his air ball down the stretch, which seemingly landed in the fifth row.

And then, on Friday morning, ESPN's Marc Stein reported that Harris has been squarely on the trading block.

His teammates and coach Ty Corbin all came to his defense, saying that he was merely the victim of a bad game and that trade rumors have no impact.

"The locker room and the practice court, this is supposed to be a safe haven," shooting guard Raja Bell said. "After you guys [the media] leave, no disrespect intended, we don't want to deal with that B.S. anymore. We're here to work and to get better. Devin's a big part of what we do."

What can't be denied is that Earl Watson has consistently outplayed Harris. Watson has run the offense better than Harris and he's facilitated the fast break better than Harris. And when Corbin inserted Harris back into the game down the stretch, the Jazz struggled to get a single good look at the basket for the remainder of the game."