UPDATE: Shortly after saying Posey was an option, Mannix tweeted that the Pacers will not buy Posey out. He’s not an option, even if the Celtics wanted him to be.

I forgot how hectic trade rumor season is. Every hour, it seems, there’s a new name. The newest name is an old name, one which will inevitably bring Celtics fans to tears of joy: James Posey. (WEEI)

As for who the Celtics might be able to land before Thursday’s trade deadline, Mannix pointed to a key member of Boston’s 2008 title team.

“No question that they need a back-up small forward, and if the Marquis Daniels injury is as bad as we think, and he’s not going to be back this year — which we still really don’t know at this stage — I would have a hard time seeing Boston winning a championship,” Mannix said.

“They need to have a quality backup in that spot, like they’ve had over the last few years … I think right now what Boston is looking at is what they have done the last couple of years, where they see what the buyout situation sort of looks like. And one name to keep an eye on is James Posey out in Indiana. The change to Frank Vogel as head coach out there has totally made Posey irrelevant. In the past, I was told Posey was not interested in securing a buyout. But that could change if he continues not to play. If they could work out a decent deal with James Posey it’s possible that he could wind up back in Boston.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: James Posey isn’t the James Posey we remember. He’s a step or two (or three) slower. Hell, I recently read the sentence (written by a knowledgeable Pacers blogger), “Obviously, Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy, Paul George and Brandon Rush are all better players on the wing than Posey at this point of their respective careers.”

But we reminisce, and we love. And in the same way my Little League career gets better as it becomes further removed from the present, the James Posey legend has grown. He was great back then, don’t get me wrong. The perfect backup for the ’08 team, I’d say. He never abandoned his role, always hustled, and matched up well against the likes of Kobe and Lebron.

But that was then, and this is now. He’s now older, slower and obviously not as good as Paul George or Brandon Rush. I just don’t see how the ’11 version of James Posey helps the Celtics, even if the ’08 version would still be damn near perfect.