Here's The Truth About Trey Murphy III Trade Rumors Fooling Celtics Fans image
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The Boston Celtics are not close to acquiring Trey Murphy III from the New Orleans Pelicans.
Some believe they are, though.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, Instagram account basketballrush11 posted that the Pelicans and Celtics are in "advanced trade talks on a deal that would send Trey Murphy III and Dejounte Murray to Boston in exchange for Paul George and multiple draft picks, per sources."
The problem? It's not real. The account has a history of posting fabricated NBA rumors.
That hasn't stopped the fake Murphy trade from getting more than 7,000 likes and 100 comments within 24 hours of being posted. It also appears to have driven some fans to Google. According to Google Trends, "Trey Murphy Celtics" saw the second-largest increase in search volume among Celtics-related searches.
Here's the original post:
A post shared by Basketball Rush (@basketballrush11)
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It doesn't help that many Celtics fans want the front office to trade for Murphy.
The No. 17 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Murphy is a 6-8 forward who can jump out of the gym and space the floor at a high level. He's averaged 21.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game over the last two seasons while attempting 8.4 3-pointers per game and making 37.1 percent of them.
Murphy would check many of the same boxes as George, only he's 11 years younger.
Also not helping is that the fake rumor wasn't completely pulled from thin air.
HoopsHype's Michael Scotto reported in early July that the Celtics were among the teams monitoring Murphy's market, along with the Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers and Atlanta Hawks. Scotto added that the Pelicans had dropped their asking price from the equivalent of four to three first-round picks.
Maybe the Pelicans will trade Murphy. Maybe he will even end up on the Celtics. But that day is not today.
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