Be as leery of denials during trade deadline season as of rumors

Love and Isaiah are two players Ainge coveted in the past. Will Love join IT in Boston next week?

Trade deadline is in full swing now that we've hit NBA All-Star weekend. Most fans love talking rumors. It's a way to imagine your team taking a leap in talent. Always wanted a certain superstar to join your team. Now is the time to see if there is smoke. A smaller sub set of fans hate trade rumors. They love their own players and think their current team has no ceiling. Some might want to make a trade, but just want to trade trash and a couple 2nd rounders for quality. That never happens. Then there is the reality that the far majority of rumors never turn into anything.

The NBA isn't fantasy sports. Stars aren't traded very often. In fact non-stars aren't traded very often. With that in mind we try and post all credible Celtics rumors on CelticsLife. While there is a vocal minority of fans that hate them the vast majority want to know of every possibility. Whether it's a remote possibility or imminent. You can read who the report is from and who their sources are and make up your mind whether it has a chance or if it should be taken with a grain of salt.

Once Ray Allen found out he was almost traded, he wanted no part of a future in Boston

What usually happens with a rumor is someone credible starts it, everyone picks it up, and then it is denied by team sources. The thing is rumors are almost always going to be denied. As a fan you should be as leery of a report refuting a trade rumor as you are of said trade rumor. Just because a rumor is started, doesn't mean the deal is going to happen. And simply because the rumor is then denied does not mean it won't happen.

While it's easy for GM's to talk about moving faceless future draft picks, it's a different story when discussing real people. Let's say the Celtics could get James Harden for some sweetheart deal of Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder Tyler Zeller, and David Lee. Never would happen, but let's just say that Morey got confused and thought he was working for the Celtics again.

Just like any team would the Celtics denied all Rajon Rondo trade rumors until after he was traded

Even if the deal was close there is no way that the Rockets would want Harden or the Celtics would want their players to know about, because if the trade fell through you may have egos that can never be repaired. You'd have two players in Crowder and Bradley that signed long term deals to be in Boston that knew that Danny wanted to trade them. Houston would have a disgruntled superstar. Came in point the infamous Ray Allen of O.J. Mayo trade from 2012. That trade was all, but done, and then it wasn't. It got out in the news that Ainge tried to trade Ray Allen away and Allen became forever bitter about it and then that Summer took less money to leave Boston.

Sometimes a team will leak a rumor to drum up more offers for a player they are trying to move. But for every rumor you hear, there will be a denial. Take both the rumors and the denials with grains of salt. Remember the Rondo rumors? Fans would get livid when it was reported that Ainge was shopping him. Ainge would deny it. Fans would say "See!" But Ainge was shopping Rondo. And once he found a deal he was comfortable with, he pulled the trigger. That's how it works.

Kevin Love might not come to Boston, despite rumors he may. Kevin Love might come to Boston despite denials of trade rumors. Same goes for every name you will hear. Don't get too hyped by a rumor. Don't dismiss a rumor due to a denial. Buckle in. We got our All-Star on deadline day last season. Next 5 days could get pretty crazy.