A few times a year, rumors start to swirl about the possibility of the Boston Celtics trading star point guard (and team captain as 2014) Rajon Rondo. This has been going on since 2009, but really it was going on before that, but Rondo wasn’t the center of trade talks. Before the trades for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007, no player on the Celtics’ roster was safe, with the possible exception of Paul Pierce. Then Minnesota Timberwolves general manager (and current Houston Rockets head coach, and forever a Celtics legend) Kevin McHale was interested in Rondo, but the deal for Kevin Garnett was centered around Al Jefferson and Gerald Green, and Celtics GM Danny Ainge was able to talk his former teammate into another young point guard in Sebastian Telfair, but he was rumored to be traded even back then. Rajon Rondo is the last player left from the 2007 Celtics team that failed in their attempt to tank for Kevin Durant or Greg Oden, and he’s also the last remaining Celtics player from the 2008 squad that took the NBA by storm and beat the Los Angeles Lakers in what felt like a six game sweep. He’s constantly rumored in trades, and nothing has changed that, but with Rondo expected to hit free agency in the summer of 2015, the rumors are really heating up this time. Something might actually happen. It’s been reported that he wants out, and won’t re-sign with the Celtics, but Rondo and his agent have also reportedly denied that report, so really it’s anyone’s guess at this point. Rondo probably doesn’t know, Danny Ainge probably doesn’t know, Wyc Grousbeck probably doesn’t know, and I certainly don’t know, but that’s what the Internet is for. Time to speculate!
The problem with trading Rajon Rondo is the question of what the Celtics would be able to get in return. When healthy, Rondo is an All-Star point guard in an era when there are a ton of good point guards. Derrick Rose. Deron Williams. Chris Paul. Russell Westbrook. Steph Curry. Tony Parker. Kyle Lowry. Ricky Rubio. Ty Lawson. Kyrie Irving. Goran Dragic. Trey Burke. And the list goes on. Even on the Celtics, there is a surplus at the position with second year PG Phil Pressey, and the 2014 #6 overall draft pick, Marcus Smart from Oklahoma State. The abundance of point guard talent has been crushing Rondo’s trade value. The C’s were unable to get a deal done for Kevin Love in part because their best asset was Rondo, and Rondo wasn’t enough of a draw by himself the way Cleveland could tempt Love with the chance to play with both Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, but also because they couldn’t include Rondo in a trade for Love because Minnesota already has a point guard in Ricky Rubio, and without another All-Star on the roster, there is no way Love would sign to stay in Boston for the long haul. The teams with assets the Celtics want don’t need an All-Star point guard, and the teams that want a point guard of Rondo’s caliber do not have assets the Celtics want, so it would seem that the best course of action would be to keep Rondo in Boston, but it’s not so simple.
Rajon Rondo is incredibly talented, but also incredibly frustrating. He is an elite passer, and his ability to make plays is incredible. Rondo is a pure point guard, much like Bob Cousy, Steve Nash, or John Stockton. What made those players great was their ability to make the players around them better, but I don’t always see that with Rondo. Before his knee injury, it looked like he had managed to turn the assist, an inherently selfless stat as it’s literally the number of time you pass it to the guy who gets credit for the points, into an unselfish one. He was racking up a lot of double-doubles by routinely racking up double digit assist games, but it seemed like he was making the play that would more likely earn him an assist than the one that was the best basketball play for the team at the time, making a low-percentage pass when he had a high-percentage lane to the basket, and the Celtics offense became stagnant as Rondo would let the shot clock drain before passing it with so little time that the recipient of the ball had no choice but to shoot it rather than move the ball around and develop and open scoring opportunity, and have someone else get credit for the assist. It made the Celtics one dimensional on offense…and that was when they still had Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett at their disposal.
When Rondo has his head in the game, he can be truly brilliant, but sometimes it takes the C’s having their backs against the wall in a playoff series for brilliant Rondo to show himself. He’s not exactly known as someone who is easy to get along with either. Many have speculated that both Ray Allen and Doc Rivers left Boston when they did because they couldn’t stand working with Rondo anymore. You don’t have to be the nicest guy in the world to be a winner. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are perfect examples of that in basketball, and I could rattle off a dozen other names in other sports to prove my point, but the difference between Rondo and someone like MJ or Kobe is that those guys were the best in the NBA at the height of their demanding nature towards their teammates, and Rondo is a very talented point guard who is not a very good shooter in a game where any team whose best player fits that description cannot win a title.
What I would like to see, even more than signing him long term, is for the Celtics to trade Rondo for a good player at a different position, possibly a rim-protector, and move forward with Marcus “Wicked” Smart as the franchise point guard. The Celtics might be able to pull off the tandem point guard scheme that the San Antonio Spurs won a championship with this spring with Tony Parker and Patty Mills, but if Rondo is non-committal, I don’t mind seeing him leave if they C’s can get something of substance in return. I would love for the Celtics to strike a deal with the Indiana Pacers, who were the second best team in the Eastern Conference the last two seasons, but are a long shot for the playoffs this year after losing talented young guard Lance Stephenson in free agency to the Charlotte Hornets (yes, they’re the Hornets again!) and losing their best player, Paul George, for the season after he suffered a brutal leg break in an exhibition game this summer. The Pacers have something that I would love to see in a Celtics uniform, and that something is center Roy Hibbert. Hibbert, who was a star player at Georgetown in college, and has guest starred as himself on Parks and Recreation a couple of times, and he also happens to be a legit NBA center who could use a change of scenery. The Pacers have been good the past few years, but it looks as if the core of that team has reached its ceiling, and with the losses of George and Stephenson, now might be the best time for Larry Bird and Co. to retool and rebuild. Hibbert would make the Celtics better, and Rondo could be the complimentary piece to go with Paul George once he is healthy again. The Celtics would not be finished rebuilding, but being able to put Smart, Hibbert, Avery Bradley, and Jared Sullinger on the floor together would be a great start.
Time will tell if this latest batch of Rondo rumors are anything to believe, but this time next year, there is a very real chance that he will not be wearing a Celtics uniform, and if that’s the case, I hope the Celtics got something worthwhile in return.
Dave's Words 