of the few chips we have i'm most inclined to part with rondo. (obligatory statement: the kid)
trading KG and pierce would throw us into a rebuild of unknown length.
trading bass, green, lee for smith or other would decimate the teams depth.
trading rondo would hurt but he could bring back a piece or pieces who can help us win this year and build for the future.
now for the shocker:
I'd rather trade rondo for a combo like dragic and gortat then for a howard.
Dragic is rondo lite, a capable ball handler, distributor, an active defender and, by the numbers, a more productive scorer then rondo. he is 26, and could improve (he has never played with talent like KG and pierce.)
Gortat gives the c's the big man they need, a good rebounder, passer and active defender.
adding these two for rondo and maybe melo would give us a rotation of
dragic, terry
lee, terry
pierce, green
bass, green
KG, gortat
with sully coming back next year to take the starting 4 spot from el basso
trading rondo for the self possessed knucklehead howard only fills one need and doesn't set us up for the future, (howard is in it for howard and will go where howard can get the most press for howard)
PHX seems ideally suited to make this trade because they are stuck in awful and need to be more awful to get a high pick.
rondo's out so he won't help this year but could help land j smith over the summer. next year they go forward with that combo.