I still just dont understand how anyone can justify trading a top 3 point guard in the league who averages over 11 assists per game! Like...What do you expect to get in return that values that? absurd.
These seem like fairly realistic trades, would you make any of them?
Rondo, 22 for Matthews, Smith, 11
Rondo for Conley, Cunningham, 25
Rondo, 22 for Jack, Aminu, 10
Rondo for Harris, Hayward
Rondo, 22 for Calderon, 8
they are realistic. I've brought up the Calderon concept before. The idea is that although Rondo is a fantastic distributor and 'setup guy', he's actually a fairly limited offensive player. When you have a star like Paul Pierce playing at a star level, you actually don't necessarily NEED Rondo. Pierce is comfortable having the ball flow through him... and he has a tendency to step his game up with Rondo out... which is why we won game 2 and why we had a winning record when Rondo sat this year. So I actually questioned whether or offense would be "better" if you replaced ROndo with a phenomenal shooter like Jose Calderon. He's a career 48% shooter (38% from three and 88% from the line) ... Basically you replace a guy who can't shoot for his life (Rondo) with one of the best shooters in the league. I imagine that would open things up for the rest of the starters... and I think a case could be made that it would actually IMPROVE our offense (for what it's worth, Calderon averages about 9 assists with garbage teammates). Still, this is all contingent on Paul Pierce being here and capable of playing like a star... and I don't think Pierce has too many years left.
I worry about how Rondo will perform when the guys he distributes the ball to (Ray, KG, and Pierce) retire. What happens when he no longer has 3 hall-of-famers surrounding him... what happens when the Celtics ask him to be a primary scorer and the guy can't shoot... what happens when teams start doubling him like they do Rose, Chris Paul and Deron Williams? Rondo is fantastic in his role right now, because he has elite scorers around him... but what happens when the elite scorers disappear? Positive outlook: He ends up a poor man's Jason Kidd and a few fringe stars can turn us into a mediocre little playoff team (like when the Nets lucked into the finals back-to-back years when the Leastern Conference was a joke). Negative outlook: His assists drop when his shot attempts rise, his limited offensive ability becomes and issue, the team starts losing and Rondo (who appears to be a very temperamental stubborn guy) starts sulking. As we saw when Boston traded Perk and Rondo went comatose for a few months... a "sulking" Rondo isn't anywhere near as good as a "happy Rondo".
So although these trades kinda stink, I DO understand why Ainge has been exploring moving him and I DO understand why Ainge will continue to explore moving him. I personally prefer a pipe-dream scenario where we sign Deron Williams in free agency (he's better than Rondo, not limited offensively, has shown success as a leader and his team's best player, has all the same distribution and setup abilities, he's available this summer... and we have the cap space to sign him) and then trade Rondo to the highest bidder (preferably a big man... a Josh Smith or Al Jefferson or something). Offer Rondo and both 1sts for Dwight Howard if Dwight demands a trade.