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A lot may change between now and the NBA's Feb. 8 trade deadline, but you'd better hope your favorite team is already formulating its plans.

Opportunities come and go quickly, and hesitation can be costly. Teams need to know where they stand, what they need and how they can get it.

Any transaction necessarily involves a buyer and a seller. In this case, "buy" is a suggestion that the team in question should be the one trying to get better for this year. Sellers are doing the opposite, playing the long game and trying to set themselves up to build a winner more deliberately.

The setup of the league—in which only about a half-dozen clubs have even the flimsiest title hopes and a lottery pick remains the best way to rebuild—means there are going to be far more sellers than buyers. That's always the case, but the disparity feels especially exaggerated this season.

With a month between now and the deadline, these suggestions are subject to change. Opportunists have to be flexible.

But for now, here's how all 30 teams should handle their business.