NBA trade rumors: a primer on how to...read

I love trade rumor season more than anything. Perhaps that's because of the Bulls brand of basketball, but it's true.

But man, it also leads to some headaches on the blog. So since some people may be new to this place, or new to interpreting trade rumors, some quick and random notes:

• Rumor = a source told me this | Speculation = here's what I think could happen
• Cut this shit out when it comes to linking nonsense websites that either don't link their source or are too dumb to understand what they're 'citing'. This happened again Monday with 'hoops-nation', in a post that very clearly couldn't even keep straight themselves whether it had its own source or was using some other 'report'. Daily Thunder had a great post last week about how these things happen, and it's mostly due to a game of telephone where speculation becomes rumor by the time it gets to shitty places like International Business Times or Latino Post.
• I'm not saying you can't find actual rumors other than where they originate, but it can always be traced back to the original report, whether that's from ESPN or Yahoo or whatever. If it's coming from a 'contributor' on Yahoo or Bleacher Report is speculation, and in their defense it's spelled out as such.
• As I said, I love actual rumors. They're often not that trustworthy themselves, but at least it's sourced to some degree. Reporters and analysts do know people, even if sometimes they don't know the right people (or enough people) to get things totally right. Reporters are also free to speculate, too, so just be mindful of the difference.

Ultimately, it's my job to figure this stuff out. I'm just trying to save you guys some time, as I'll just delete it if it's nonsense. You can of course link and discuss speculation as such, like "this is crap but it got me thinking..."

And on the other end, there are legitimate reporters who I simply don't like/trust as well. A really solid aggregator like HoopsRumors will link them (and wouldn't do so for Hoops-Nation), and I don't mind seeing new FanPosts/Fanshots created regarding those rumors, but I won't rush to the front page with them.

Ooh, maybe we can use this time to compare notes and slag on semi-notable strangers? That could be fun. Here's my early BaB pay-no-mind list, in no real order...

• Chris Broussard, ESPN.com
• Chris Sheridan, SheridanHoops.com
• Alex Kennedy and the BasketballInsiders (formerly HoopsWorld) crew
• Sam Amico, Fox Sports Ohio
• Jared Zwerling and Ric Bucher (unless he's talking to Derrick Rose's agent), Bleacher Report
• Sam Smith, Bulls.com

(Especially with Basketball Insiders, I'm not saying the general work from these guys is poor, just that I don't trust their direct reporting, or at least I think they produce too much of it to believe most of it.)