Brad Stevens not sweating trade rumors surrounding Celtics
Like anyone else, Brad Stevens hears the trade rumors floating around social media ahead of the Feb. 19 NBA trade deadline. A few may be realistic, while others are mere pipe dreams.
Now in his third NBA season, the head coach has learned to separate himself from the speculation, instead of getting caught up in it. Rather than sweating out the possibilities, Stevens tries to have some fun with them.
“We’re just all like listening and laughing,’’ Stevens said Wednesday of how he handles the rumors with his team. “We’re trying to figure out what’s real and what’s not, but not putting a lot of a stock into it until somebody knocks on our door. And that’s the way I feel about it. I probably followed up on every third rumor my first year. And I don’t think I’ve followed up on one yet. If Danny wants to talk to me about something, he knows where to find me.’’
With a hefty pile of trade assets in young players and draft picks, the Celtics are expected to be active in the coming weeks. Danny Ainge and the Boston front office have remained quiet to this point after being very active last season by this time of year. However, with this year’s squad posting 10 wins in its past 13 games, there may not much reason to tinker for the time being.
Whatever direction the front office elects to go with, Stevens is content on maximizing the personnel he has been given.
“I’m not losing sleep over what might happen, what’s not going to happen, what’s not real, what’s real, any of that stuff,’’ Stevens said. “I’m just coaching our team and focused on our team. If something happens, it happens. We’ve had stability all the way throughout this year, we’ve started to play better, although we’ve been pretty consistent in our effort and our defense most of the year. We’ve started to play a little bit better, offensively, at times, and our goal is just to keep getting better. Anything that detracts from that or distracts for that is something not worth thinking about.
Stevens later added: “I don’t think that guys put a lot of stock into [rumors], to be honest. It’s part of the business. We all recognize it’s part of the business. … And there’s so many games and there’s so little time to prepare for the games, it’s really hard to get sidetracked. Certainly, you’re not always going to play your best, certainly there’s always distractions, but if you let distractions creep into you while you’re playing, you’ll play poorly.’’
Potential Celtics trade targets
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