I agree with all of your points LarBrd33. It's not that I don't like Rondo -- I do -- but I just agree that we have a very good player in Bradley who is very worthy of NBA minutes right now and his best skill is defense, but can't do such as well as he can if he's guarding SGs instead of PGs. So why not trade away the PG who can get us more back at other positions, which is Rondo, when Rondo's best skill has proved to not be necessary for a championship team.
Rondo's best skills--passing, defense, rebounding, scoring when he needs to, having the ability to take over big ball games like only a handful of players in the league can--have led our team to within a game of the NBA championship and to within a game of the Eastern Conference championship in the last three years.
He's being re-written as a one-trick pony around here lately. This simply is not the case. When you have an elite talent in the league at a bargain price, you keep him.
Memories are awfully short on this forum these days. People are acting like the 38 games that he played in to start this season (not all of them as awful as they are frequently made out to be, by the way) define what he's done for this team over the course of the last four seasons.
You are absolutely right, but I think I am too. I said Rondo's "best skill has proved to not be necessary for a championship team". I still think being a masterful passer is his
best skill, not only skill, and I still think that's not necessary for a championship team. As for his other skills, yes he is a very good defender, but not as good as the player he's being compared to in Bradley. Rebounding, yes he's maybe the best for his position, but a team with excellent rebounding guards is not going to make you an excellent rebounding team. Scoring is something he absolutely brings to the table. The most overlooked part of his game is his ability to take over a game, like you mentioned. So hard to quantify, but he's one of the best in the sport for his ability to do so.
I do realize that he is an "elite talent at a bargain price" which is exactly why I think he could fetch a lot in return. A lot more than Bradley could. It's not who I want more as a player - that answer is clearly Rondo, its whether or not Bradley + player acquired for Rondo is better than Rondo + player acquired for Bradley.