Celtics need to trade Rondo this summer

[nickagneta]

  Are you serious?  This is a trade worthy incident?  He had 20 points, 11 assists, 4 steals, 4 rebounds and only 1 TO while shooting 56% from the field.  He was hands down the best player on the floor including Josh Smith.  Rondo should be given the Nobel Peace Price for not punching that "official" in the face.  
   First of all, that "official" thought he was a superstar and all the people were there cheering for him.  He knows that he will never be as important as Rondo at anything and he let his ego and insecurity take over.  He blows a call on Josh Smith.  He repeatedly let Rondo get abused under the rim.  Every time Rondo pointed out his obvious lack of ability to officiate the game, he got sensitive and took it out on Rondo.  
   I've never seen a foul called on two people fighting for a loose ball on the floor in the regular season let alone a playoff game, but this official clearly thought that he will become a hero and decide the fate of the game by just gifting one team with the ball in a game changing moment.  The Celtics had cut it to 4 points with plenty of time, and after some inspired defense and KG literally diving face first on the floor to get the ball they give the ball to Atlanta on a bad call, two POSSESSIONS in a row.
   He also T'd up Rondo for doing nothing but arguing the call which he was perfectly allowed to do (especially when the official just gave a free possession to the Hawks when Smith knocked the ball from Rondo's hands out of bounds.) He clearly stopped short and Rondo tripped on his foot.  The irony is the only way Rondo could've stopped his fall was put his hands on the official.  Did Rondo put a little extra force and enjoy the contact a little too much, yeah.  But I honestly was contemplating punching the ref myself.  Rondo has never been the type of guy to hit players or refs.  He gets angry but I've never seen him initiate contact with anyone.  But whatever, thanks to Metta World Peace, Rondo will pay the price.  
   The official should be fired on the spot.  If you can't do your job properly you get fired.  That's the "rule" every one lives by, except for officials in the NBA.

Few things:

1. I agree the out of bounds call earlier was a wrong call and it should have been Celtics ball. I can see why Rondo was angry over that.

But to be fair:

2. I have seen that scrum called all sorts of ways including jump ball and foul on the player(Bass) jumping to the floor to get the ball from the player that almost has control(Smith) in both regular and post season play. I will agree though that the timing of the call is rather ridiculous as refs should let players decide games in the last minute of playoff games, not refs and my guess is 60-75% of other refs would have called a jump ball.

3. My guess here is that the first technical on Rondo wasn't because he said: "Oh golly gee. Aw shucks, Mr. Referee, sir. Are you 100% sure on that call". Again my guess is it went something along the lines of "An F bomb. F bomb you. Are you F bomb blind?"

4. There was no trip. Rondo bumped him. He let his anger get the best of him. By the same token, with 40 seconds left and Atlanta at the line shooting 2 and getting every call in the last 2 minutes, I'm not sure Rondo keeping his mouth shut would have made a difference. The C's would have needed to hit three's the rest of the way and that wasn't happening last night.

[bopna]

  Are you serious?  This is a trade worthy incident?  He had 20 points, 11 assists, 4 steals, 4 rebounds and only 1 TO while shooting 56% from the field.  He was hands down the best player on the floor including Josh Smith.  Rondo should be given the Nobel Peace Price for not punching that "official" in the face.  
   First of all, that "official" thought he was a superstar and all the people were there cheering for him.  He knows that he will never be as important as Rondo at anything and he let his ego and insecurity take over.  He blows a call on Josh Smith.  He repeatedly let Rondo get abused under the rim.  Every time Rondo pointed out his obvious lack of ability to officiate the game, he got sensitive and took it out on Rondo.  
   I've never seen a foul called on two people fighting for a loose ball on the floor in the regular season let alone a playoff game, but this official clearly thought that he will become a hero and decide the fate of the game by just gifting one team with the ball in a game changing moment.  The Celtics had cut it to 4 points with plenty of time, and after some inspired defense and KG literally diving face first on the floor to get the ball they give the ball to Atlanta on a bad call, two POSSESSIONS in a row.
   He also T'd up Rondo for doing nothing but arguing the call which he was perfectly allowed to do (especially when the official just gave a free possession to the Hawks when Smith knocked the ball from Rondo's hands out of bounds.) He clearly stopped short and Rondo tripped on his foot.  The irony is the only way Rondo could've stopped his fall was put his hands on the official.  Did Rondo put a little extra force and enjoy the contact a little too much, yeah.  But I honestly was contemplating punching the ref myself.  Rondo has never been the type of guy to hit players or refs.  He gets angry but I've never seen him initiate contact with anyone.  But whatever, thanks to Metta World Peace, Rondo will pay the price.  
   The official should be fired on the spot.  If you can't do your job properly you get fired.  That's the "rule" every one lives by, except for officials in the NBA.

Bout time somebody here makes some sense....TP for you man!!!

[RyNye]

I like how people are acting like Rondo is the only player in the sport who has ever been given a one-game suspension for temporarily losing their cool in a closely contested, meaningful game.  

Anyone who honestly thinks this should consider the following list of players, who in the past 2-3 seasons have ALSO been given one-game suspensions (in some cases multiple) for losing their cool on the court:

(and this is a PARTIAL list. I am just giving the biggest names, there are dozens of others).

Dwight Howard
Andrew Bynum (no, not talking about Barea, talking about previous incidents)
Paul Pierce
Shaquille O'Neill
Rudy Gay
Elton Brand
Kevin Garnett
Ray Allen
Carmelo Anthony
Zach Randolph
Tyson Chandler
Dirk Nowitzki
Steve Nash

Are you people seriously saying you don't want any of these players on your team? Many of them have had WORSE incidents/suspensions than Rondo.

Honestly, the knee-jerk reactions by the bandwagon Rondo haters can be seriously short-sighted and obnoxious. It really is sickening. Everyone has the right to their opinion, but I genuinely do not understand the vitriolic dislike some people have for their own [dang]ed team.

[Employee8]

You guys are ridiculous.  That's why I generally stay away from the forums when the games heat up.  Please, let the cooler heads prevail.

See you guys after this round and before the next.

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

I like how people are acting like Rondo is the only player in the sport who has ever been given a one-game suspension for temporarily losing their cool in a closely contested, meaningful game.  

Anyone who honestly thinks this should consider the following list of players, who in the past 2-3 seasons have ALSO been given one-game suspensions (in some cases multiple) for losing their cool on the court:

(and this is a PARTIAL list. I am just giving the biggest names, there are dozens of others).

Dwight Howard
Andrew Bynum (no, not talking about Barea, talking about previous incidents)
Paul Pierce
Shaquille O'Neill
Rudy Gay
Elton Brand
Kevin Garnett
Ray Allen
Carmelo Anthony
Zach Randolph
Tyson Chandler
Dirk Nowitzki
Steve Nash

Are you people seriously saying you don't want any of these players on your team? Many of them have had WORSE incidents/suspensions than Rondo.

Honestly, the knee-jerk reactions by the bandwagon Rondo haters can be seriously short-sighted and obnoxious. It really is sickening. Everyone has the right to their opinion, but I genuinely do not understand the vitriolic dislike some people have for their own [dang]ed team.

TP. People will debate "The Bump" till the cows come home and I don't think anyone is swaying anyone else's opinion of that.
The irritating aspect is the ridiculous critiques of Rondo that are coupled by the idealization of other players (who have done very similar things) in the process of putting down Rondo. Players in the league now (e.g. CP3 who punched a player below the belt) or past (DJ had some issues, yes?). So to call for a trade on this is absurd especially when the guys being viewed as ideal are all so similar.
Double standards and willful blindness and bias in criticism are what make this all so outlandish.

[celts55]

It's pretty amazing here how no one has ever lost their temper and done something stupid.
While I agree, it was in fact a stupid move, I'm certainly not looking to dump him because of it. As others have said, he was by far the only player who kept the Celtics in the game to begin with. Hell, he had 11 assists, when no one could hit a shot. If him team mates hit half the wide open shots they missed, he probably would have had 20 assists.
I really doubt if you look back at the career of any pro player, you wouldn't find sometime or something they have done that dumb and cost their team. It happened, and hopefully he learned a lesson, but trading your best player because he lost is temper is beyond me.
Most of those who want to get rid of him are the same people who cried when they traded Perkins, who had more than his share of tecs.  

[thestackshow]

While your at it...

Trade Pierce, he sucked last night. Lost us the game with his shots.

Trade KG also, he sucked in the first half badly.

Trade Bradley, he didnt have 15 points.

Trade our bench, they were a complete non factor.

Trade Ray Allen for a spare tire, since he cant play.

Trade Doc Rivers cause its his fault we lost probably.

[csfansince60s]

 My 1000th post:

I agree with many on here that say Rondo should be suspended for a game (though we don't want it to happen).

I also agree with those who say that trading Rondo because of this incident is not a prudent decision.

However, I do disagree with those who say that we could not get real, substantive value back for him in trade.

We just have to find a team that can be taken to the next level by Rondo's skillset and who has assets that we would be interested in for a rebuild, if that is the direction we are choosing for next year.

A team like Golden State comes to mind, but I am sure that there are others out there. This trade works with GS:http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=cftrdcq

GS gets Rondo

Boston gets Biedrens or Richard Jefferson. (If Biedrens, we get Klay Thompson too) in addition to GS' 4 draft picks this year including their lottery pick (currently 7th), the 30th, 35th and 52nd picks, and maybe their #1 in 2014.

GS gets out from Biedrens or Jefferson's contract and can amnesty the other if they want more cap flexibility. They get Rondo to pair with Curry in the backcourt and go forward with a core of Bogut, Lee, Curry and Rondo.

This may not be something that we or GS do, but is just an example of one way getting decent value for Rondo: a slew of draft picks for a rebuild for Rondo.

[snively]

Magic Johnson chest bumped an official a few days after calling out his teammates for immaturity.  This as a 36 year old elder statesman of the league.  These things can happen. 

Rondo needs to learn to control his emotions better, but his emotions are a big part of why he's such a good player in the first place.

[LarBrd33]

I'm all for signing Deron Williams and trading Rondo to the highest bidder.  But i've been saying that for months.

[Fafnir]

I'm all for signing Deron Williams and trading Rondo to the highest bidder.  But i've been saying that for months.

From a getting talent via cap space and trade assets that'd be the ideal, I just think that its essentially impossible to pull off due to timing. Rondo as a trade piece could fetch a non-PG talent to pair with Deron far superior than the FA class could provide for a non-PG to pair with Rondo.

[Moranis]

Is it wrong to consider this topic borderline trolling, if not full-fledged?

Yes, it would be wrong.

Moranis has held the opinion we need to trade Rondo to move on with a rebuild for quite some time. I can't blame him for finding further reason for his previously held thoughts in this awful outburst of immaturity.

Exactly.  This team is done as a contender, which means it needs to go into full bore rebuilding as it isn't going to land any meaningful free agents this summer (which could have jump started a new contending team).

If you aren't a title contender and are not a young team that is headed in that direction, then you need to start over.  Rondo is good enough to keep the Celtics from truly being bad, which means the odds of a difference maker in the draft are much less and that is a bad position to be in.  Thus, you have to move him or somehow land a franchise player with him still around and I just don't see that as very realistic.

If Rondo was far more consistent I might feel differently about keeping him, but he has consistently shown he isn't a franchise player with his sporadic inconsistent play and his highly emotional physical state.  He plays with far too much emotion and lets the off court stuff interfere with his game play.  

[twinbree]

It makes no sense to me to trade a player for getting himself ejected in a playoff game. If we did that the Big Three would have been broken up after KG was traded for elbowing QRich and Pierce for getting ejected in the semis. People get overcome by their emotions and make poor decisions. It doesn't negate their other positive contributions. I'm disappointed in how he ended the game but I'm very proud of his effort last night. The team for the past few seasons always look like they are surprised by the first playoff game and start off on the wrong foot in our Round 1 Game 1 and I'm glad Rondo realized we had to show some sense of urgency starting the series on the road.

For his flaws Rondo is a very talented and fierce competitor who is still young and has to go through growing pains. As someone who loves Rondo I wonder sometimes if a trade would help him by putting him in a healthier environment. But from the perspective of a Celtics fan I don't want to trade him because it'll be difficult to get fair value back. I'm certainly not in favor of trading him for picks. A bird in hand being worth rookies in the draft.

[Fafnir]

I just dont' see the point of getting rid of a 25 year old all-star when you're trying to rebuild.

You want to have 25 year old all-stars on your team when you're assembling a new core to your team. Getting rid of him for the sake of draft position is just hitting the reset button because you lack the vision to try something else.

[Moranis]

I just dont' see the point of getting rid of a 25 year old all-star when you're trying to rebuild.

You want to have 25 year old all-stars on your team when you're assembling a new core to your team. Getting rid of him for the sake of draft position is just hitting the reset button because you lack the vision to try something else.

One 25 year old all star (who isn't a top five player in the game) is going to make your team good enough to just make the playoffs or just miss the playoffs.  That isn't a good place to be when you are trying to rebuild.  You won't be bad enough to get the truly elite draft assets and likewise won't be good enough to draw elite level players to your team.  You end up with overpriced role players in free agency.