HOUSTON — Remember those teams you used to think the Celtics could poach for a good player? You know, pick a nowhere club with a star and figure you can send them a batch of goodies to balance the trade scale?

Well, the Celtics are now apparently one of those other teams. Thus has begun the season of rumors of how opponents are offering/should offer/it would be really cool if they did offer bags of shiny objects for Rajon Rondo.

As of yesterday, Danny Ainge had still not taken leave of his senses — which is another way of saying he’s not considering dealing a great player for a selection of nice ones.

In fact, as of that conversation, the subject hadn’t even reached his desk in anything other than media wrapping.

“No,” said Ainge when asked if anyone was trying to do such a deal. “I haven’t talked to any teams about Rajon Rondo.”

On the off chance he was playing semantic games — “Words with Non-Friends,” if you will — we asked if any other clubs had made an overture that was cut off before he could talk to any team about Rajon Rondo.

Again, Ainge replied with a flat, “No.”

But, yes, he does expect this whole dance to get even stranger before the NBA trade deadline in February. But it probably shouldn’t.

On Sunday night, when you had to duck to avoid being hit in the head with a Rondo rumor, we tweeted that, in the NBA, four quarters do not equal a dollar. One great player is infinitely more valuable than a package. Good complementary players lose much of their worth without stars to complement — or haven’t you been watching the Celtics this season.

Minus the crack about his own team, Ainge seems to agree with this concept. Asked his general thought as he approaches transactions and team construction, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations said, “That great players are hard to find. That’s the philosophy that I have.”

He knows he has one of those in Rondo, and he is a bit surprised that others may be downplaying the point guard’s abilities, even partially because Rondo is still out after ACL surgery.

“I think a lot of people forget that Rajon was the starting guard on the Eastern Conference All-Star team last year,” said Ainge. “Rajon has been really good. I think him and Brad (Stevens, the new coach) are developing a great relationship, and he’s just a huge part of our future. We’re building around Rajon.”

It is true that Ainge was more than willing to talk about Rondo in a trade for Chris Paul two years ago, but that should tell you that it’ll take something major to get the Celts to even consider parting with a known and coveted quantity.

“Logic and common sense will probably tell you more than what you’re going to hear or read about or anything else,” said Ainge. “There are all these rumors, and it’s just so frustrating for me.”

The message has largely gotten through to the rest of the league. One general manager could almost be heard shaking his head at the other end of the phone line yesterday.

“If you don’t hear of some superstar going back to the Celtics for Rondo, don’t pay any attention to it,” he said. “They don’t want to trade the guy anyway, but when people are throwing names like Iman Shumpert and Raymond Felton and Amare Stoudemire (Knicks) out there, you can be sure Rondo’s not involved.

“Look, like I said, they don’t want to trade Rondo. Why would they? I’m sure they’d have to listen if there was another major star involved, but it would have to be really big. This other stuff just doesn’t make any sense.”

Another name linked with the Celtics is Houston center Omer Asik, who, with Dwight Howard now on his club, has asked for a trade.

“I don’t know if they’ll get a good enough package for him,” said one NBA source when asked if the Rockets are willing to deal Asik. “I think teams like him and think he’s a good player, but he is a non-offensive, non-free throw shooting center, and he’s not Dwight Howard. And he has a $15 million balloon payment coming next year.”

We’ve written here before that despite the lack of interest in trading Rondo — unless they get the proverbial offer they can’t refuse — the Celtics are still active in the market. Sources continue to say they’d love to move some veteran contracts (think Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace) to put them in a better position vis-a-vis the salary cap.

“I think that we don’t have much flexibility, as much as we would like,” said Ainge. “I wouldn’t say it’s a priority, but we are having conversations.”

It is possible they will have a conversation regarding Rondo some time in the future. But unless it’s part of a blockbuster scenario, it’s fair to assume the talk won’t get very far.