Chris Sheridan of ESPN is reporting that it is no longer a matter of whether Steve Francis is dealt, but whe.  New York and Denver are the leading candidates as of now, but Minnesota is trying to engineer a three-team deal that would put Francis alongside Kevin Garnett and Ricky Davis.

A long-shot possibility is Francis returning to Houston. Wednesday night's Orlando-Detroit trade removed the possibility of Kelvin Cato going to New York in a Francis trade, but the Knicks can still do a Hardaway-Francis deal by removing Jamal Crawford from the equation and substituting Trevor Ariza and rookies David Lee and/or Nate Robinson.