NBA Trade Rumors: Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens says he keeps trade talks away from players
By Josh Hill
‘Tis the season for trade rumors throughout the NBA and we’ve seen talks peak this past week with everything from Omer Asik to Luol Deng and even guys like Pau Gasol and Iman Shumpert. It’s an inevitability of playing professional basketball that trade rumors about you or your team will surface multiple times in a year but one head coach says he does his best to keep all of the rumor mill business out of his locker room business.
Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, who’s a newbie in the league despite the fact he’s been carryon himself like a seasoned veteran, spoke out about trade rumors and how he tries to keep them from getting to his players.
Per ESPN Boston’s Brian Robb:
"“Here’s what I told them today and I think it’s important,” Stevens explained, “I’m not going to talk to them about anything that is a rumor. But if I know something, my door is always open. They can come in and I’ll tell them straight up what I know, but the bottom line is, we live in a world that every day because of technology, we can better clutter our mind.”Stevens continued: “The deal is, you can’t play basketball without a clear mind. And so you’ve got to do your best to control what you can, clear your mind, and not get too overly concerned about things that are not confirmed by people in the position that are ultimately going to make decisions.”"
Stevens has been on his toes the past week in trying to keep rumors out of the locker room as the Celtics were a rumored landing spot for Houston Rockets center Omer Asik. But while that trade has since fallen through, Stevens continues to run the Celtics like he’s been doing it his whole life and this again proves that he’s much more than a first year NBA head coach fresh out of the college ranks.
Boston is a surprise team this season but the most surprising thing about them is their young head coach doing things a lot of the older guys can’t seem to figure out — keeping his team tightly knit.