I don't think Shams got played, I think that is a carefully crafted sentence, and the Celtics carefully crafted theirs.I would say that Shams agent contacts are much stronger than the Celtics would be in being truthful. No team is going to admit to a reporter that they are in these type of discussions. I believe his sources way more than any standard Celtics denial.
Has Shams ever been played like this before? I don’t recall any history of that which is why I believe him.
Shams says... " Sources tell me Celtics and Sixers had discussions about Simmons", seperately he says "any trade would be based around Brown" those are 2 separate thoughts. As to the first... he's reported similar many times and had a leak from the other side saying "never happened" or something similar. The reason being, 1 GM calls it discussions if the name is mentioned, the other calls it not a discussion because there was no real discussion beyond a quick mention. Nobody got played, that's just how the game works.