Random Rumor Thread: Post em here

[cl2117]

Rumor has it they will get Westbrook, Griffin, Cousins and Butler for four 2nd rounders and a vacuum cleaner.
You heard it here first.

Ainge is balking at including vacuum cleaner bags and is offering James Young instead. I think this could get done soon.

[Smitty731]

Word is that the Celtics may pivot to Noel or Okafor vs Griffin, especially if they can get Westbrook. Noel or Okafor would come cheaper than Griffin. And Philadelphia is motivated to move a guy.

How close do you think Philly is to moving one of them?

Not sure it is very close. But they do want to move one of them. Word is that it is still most likely to be Okafor because neither he or Embiid can play PF. So they want to keep Noel.

One of the Philadelphia media people told me they want the big rotation ideally to be:

Embiid/Noel/Holmes
Noel/Saric

But they aren't going to just give a guy away either. It will have to come with value.

[Smitty731]

Word is that the Celtics may pivot to Noel or Okafor vs Griffin, especially if they can get Westbrook. Noel or Okafor would come cheaper than Griffin. And Philadelphia is motivated to move a guy.

How close do you think Philly is to moving one of them?

I guess they´re willing to deal but they won´t dump Okafor or Noel. This is like most rumors, in the end nothing will happen.

And btw, even if you overvalue all the Celtics assets there´s no way they could get Westbrook AND Okafor or Noel, ain´t gonna happen as well.

That isn't true. A lot of people think Brooklyn may be all-time bad. Worse than Philly the last few years. And this coming Draft is shaping up to be very good. The 2017 Brooklyn pick has a lot of interest around the league.

Not saying alone it is enough, but it is a nice starting piece in a trade for star.

[bondom34]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/RealGM/status/753601499813388288[/tweet]

[HartfordWhalers]

Word is that the Celtics may pivot to Noel or Okafor vs Griffin, especially if they can get Westbrook. Noel or Okafor would come cheaper than Griffin. And Philadelphia is motivated to move a guy.

How close do you think Philly is to moving one of them?

Not sure it is very close. But they do want to move one of them. Word is that it is still most likely to be Okafor because neither he or Embiid can play PF. So they want to keep Noel.

One of the Philadelphia media people told me they want the big rotation ideally to be:

Embiid/Noel/Holmes
Noel/Saric

But they aren't going to just give a guy away either. It will have to come with value.

There are certain members of the Philly media that have missed every call they are making.

Under Hinkie it was that everything was Fort Knox and who could blame them.
Under Colangelo it was supposed to be different, and the guy openly does nba.tv interviews saying he wants to move a guy.
And yet the move insight has listed guys not getting offers from Philly. And did not include a single one who did until they signed.
It's remarkable but the local media has gotten worse since Hinkie at reporting what the team might do.

[Trader_Joe]

How close do you think Philly is to moving one of them?

I guess they´re willing to deal but they won´t dump Okafor or Noel. This is like most rumors, in the end nothing will happen.

And btw, even if you overvalue all the Celtics assets there´s no way they could get Westbrook AND Okafor or Noel, ain´t gonna happen as well.

That isn't true. A lot of people think Brooklyn may be all-time bad. Worse than Philly the last few years. And this coming Draft is shaping up to be very good. The 2017 Brooklyn pick has a lot of interest around the league.

Not saying alone it is enough, but it is a nice starting piece in a trade for star.

I don't know about all time bad.. or even all time Nets bad (12 wins in '10 or whenever that was.. I tried to forget) but they will definitely have one of the worst, if not the worst record in the league. I tried telling people that before last season as well and tout the value of the pick for the C's. But...again worst record is still only a 25% chance at #1 though 100% chance of top 4.

[Smitty731]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/RealGM/status/753601499813388288[/tweet]

Bulpett is well known to be Ainge's mouthpiece in the media. I'm sticking by what I put out there.

FWIW, Sean Deveney reported talks today too.

[bondom34]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/RealGM/status/753601499813388288[/tweet]

Bulpett is well known to be Ainge's mouthpiece in the media. I'm sticking by what I put out there.

FWIW, Sean Deveney reported talks today too.

Deveney's said Griffin maybe, Westbrook no. Bulpett said no to both.

[Smitty731]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/RealGM/status/753601499813388288[/tweet]

Bulpett is well known to be Ainge's mouthpiece in the media. I'm sticking by what I put out there.

FWIW, Sean Deveney reported talks today too.

Deveney's said Griffin maybe, Westbrook no. Bulpett said no to both.

Yeah I can't independently confirm anything on Westbrook, so I'm not sure on that one. Everything is second and third hand with that one. I trust the people, but unless I get it myself or REALLY trust the guy...

Griffin I can assure you 100% there have been talks.

[bondom34]

Bulpett is well known to be Ainge's mouthpiece in the media. I'm sticking by what I put out there.

FWIW, Sean Deveney reported talks today too.

Deveney's said Griffin maybe, Westbrook no. Bulpett said no to both.

Yeah I can't independently confirm anything on Westbrook, so I'm not sure on that one. Everything is second and third hand with that one. I trust the people, but unless I get it myself or REALLY trust the guy...

Griffin I can assure you 100% there have been talks.

Ah, cool. Personally more focused on the OKC portion for obvious reasons, and seems from everything they've done and said Westbrook's hanging around for the year. I never understood the fit in Boston, but this backed that claim and honestly I'm not really expecting anything from Ainge at this point. I think its more smoke yet again.

[Texas Chuck]

Calling it now. Boston gets nothing done.

I would And1 this a thousand times if I could.

Why? Making deals for stars is very difficult. It's hardly going out on a limb to suggest that Boston doesn't get a deal done.

The Ainge hate is strong here.

[Smitty731]

Making any trade is extremely difficult. People act like it is fantasy sports where you and a buddy exchange a few emails or texts and it is done.

The biggest thing I have learned over the last few weeks since the Draft is that teams talk all the time. ALL the time. What gets reported on is about 10% of the talks as best.

So, you aren't really making any sort of big statement to say a team gets nothing done. The vast majority of times nothing will happen.

[the_process]

Ainge's consistent and repetitive public negotiating tactics are extremely tiresome, that's all.

[wise1-2]

I guess they´re willing to deal but they won´t dump Okafor or Noel. This is like most rumors, in the end nothing will happen.

And btw, even if you overvalue all the Celtics assets there´s no way they could get Westbrook AND Okafor or Noel, ain´t gonna happen as well.

That isn't true. A lot of people think Brooklyn may be all-time bad. Worse than Philly the last few years. And this coming Draft is shaping up to be very good. The 2017 Brooklyn pick has a lot of interest around the league.

Not saying alone it is enough, but it is a nice starting piece in a trade for star.

I don't know about all time bad.. or even all time Nets bad (12 wins in '10 or whenever that was.. I tried to forget) but they will definitely have one of the worst, if not the worst record in the league. I tried telling people that before last season as well and tout the value of the pick for the C's. But...again worst record is still only a 25% chance at #1 though 100% chance of top 4.

I could see them winning 30 games.

[Andre Roberstan]

EDIT: Never mind, it's garbage

[Texas Chuck]

Rethinking

I see you edited this as I went to quote. But I think you raised a valid point. Now I'm not Smitty and I'm not talking directly to teams, but I think that teams get to the brink of making deals more often than we think, only to have ownership come in and nix the deal at the end. Or one of the GM's to get cold feet at the last second

Sure most of it is just media members looking to get followers, clicks, attention. I don't disagree with that at all. But we often find out years later from the principals involved just how close some deals are to getting done before getting killed for one reason or the other.

[Smitty731]

Rethinking

I see you edited this as I went to quote. But I think you raised a valid point. Now I'm not Smitty and I'm not talking directly to teams, but I think that teams get to the brink of making deals more often than we think, only to have ownership come in and nix the deal at the end. Or one of the GM's to get cold feet at the last 2nd.

Sure most of it is just media members looking to get followers, clicks, attention. I don't disagree with that at all. But we often find out years later from the principals involved just how close some deals are to getting done before getting killed for one reason or the other.

So, I'm going to address some things, since I started this whole **** show:

1. I clearly posted that I was hearing that there were talks. At no point did I said a trade was imminent like how some have framed it.

2. I fully agree 100% that Griffin for Gay would be idiotic for the Clippers. But again, I clearly posted that other pieces are involved. Twitter only has 140 characters. You fit in what you can.

3. I have no vested interest in the number of twitter followers I get. I really don't care all that much. It doesn't get me anything. I don't get paid based on twitter followers.

4. I'm a writer and not a reporter. I have fully learned the difference this week. I don't want to report on news. You get nothing but grief. Some disagree and try to make both jobs the same, but they aren't.

5. The amount of jerks who have come out (not saying anyone on this particular board has done that) are incredible. It is almost enough to make want to stick to just writing and stop posting. It almost isn't worth it.

6. Last one: I own what I put there completely. I sourced it, vetted those sources, and confirmed 4 separate times before putting out the tweet. Even then I still screwed up the initial tweet. It was nerve racking to put that out there, even with the limited follower base I had. That said, I own it. I stand by it. I will stand by it even when it inevitably doesn't result in a trade happening. As I've said over and over, it was talks and trades are extremely hard to put together.

[ckchen]

I posted this as part of another post elsewhere, but felt it was relevant to this thread as well.

This is a classic statement from a Sporting News article today, again supporting how Celtics fans (and Ainge) absolutely REFUSE to consider those Brooklyn picks in deals, even for legit stars like Westbrook and Griffin - but again, all seem more than willing to assume that Philly's LAL 2017 pick should just be thrown into deals in order to trade away Okafor/Noel. Ridiculous.

The likely target for the Celtics, according to front-office sources, is Clippers forward Blake Griffin. The Clippers have been weighing trading Griffin all season, and the possibility of a three-team package involving Sacramento sending Rudy Gay to the Clippers has emerged. The Celtics would give up some number of their upcoming draft picks, but opposing front-office members say they don’t want to give up either Brooklyn pick Boston can own in the next two years.

Classic "give me your superstars and I'll give you a very tasty bag of chips" Ainge/Boston fan mentality. This is why so many people are frustrated with his grandstanding. Do I need to go back into how he's been stuck drafting all of his draft picks for the past two seasons when he clearly didn't want to and even now has like 4-5 draft picks remaining to sign on a roster that's almost full? Yet the man continues to refuse to consider dealing picks because they're worth too much? Ainge has to realize that you're either building for the future or going for broke, he can't constantly be riding the line in between and expect the rest of the league to fall in line just to make him happy. They all realize that he can't keep drafting all of his hoarded picks either, year after year. At some point, I think Ainge will have dump his picks into a deal regardless of whatever potential he thinks they might have. I can't believe that he really wants a roster littered with R.J. Hunters and James Youngs, hell even the Marcus Smarts and Roziers, while they look like decent enough possible players, he should realize in retrospect that they all get him exactly nowhere in his quest to compete in the playoffs, and that holding the line in trades is basically just getting him a team full of these guys.

[Texas Chuck]

I want to make this clear as a Mod of this forum:

Ainge is fair game. I don't agree with much of the vitriol posted against him. But I understand it and he's a public figure and knock yourselves out.

But lumping Celtics fans in with him as a group is unfair and this board can and should be better than that. We have a large number of really great Celtics fans on the Trade Board who have had no issues at all with paying fair value for stars including the Nets picks.

Please don't generalize our fans here. That goes for all fanbases obviously.

Thanks

Chuck

[Devilzsidewalk]

That isn't true. A lot of people think Brooklyn may be all-time bad. Worse than Philly the last few years. And this coming Draft is shaping up to be very good. The 2017 Brooklyn pick has a lot of interest around the league.

Not saying alone it is enough, but it is a nice starting piece in a trade for star.

I don't know about all time bad.. or even all time Nets bad (12 wins in '10 or whenever that was.. I tried to forget) but they will definitely have one of the worst, if not the worst record in the league. I tried telling people that before last season as well and tout the value of the pick for the C's. But...again worst record is still only a 25% chance at #1 though 100% chance of top 4.

I could see them winning 30 games.

I can see that before I can see worse than recent Philly. What's their starting 5, Lin/RHJ/Bogdan/Booker/Lopez? They'll take some games with that. Still some half-decent vets looking for a job too.