their skillsets would've meshed perfectly imo, with the only concern being whether Pierce would be willing to scale down his offensive load next to a ball dominant superstar.
Rondo himself was quite ball dominant, so I think the team would have been fine in that regard.
Our offense and defense would have both been quite a bit better. The only question is chemistry.
How worse could the chemistry be? Rondo and Ray ended up throwing punches at each other for crying out loud!
Obviously, we don't know both sides of the story. Based on what we know, it seems to me that Rondo's reaction was unprofessional and childish (to say the least).
I mean, Danny had advised Red to trade Bird and McHale cause they didn't have much left in the tank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8azMvUij95E&t=1m4s
Should Bird and McHale had thrown punches at Danny?
That is Danny's claim, which Bird disputes. Thankfully, Red Auerbach knew the right way to treat players who had given their career and their playing health to the Celtic organization. Even though we declined, the only right choice was to keep Bird and McHale.
Besides which, it isn't the choice to keep Bird/McHale past their prime that sent the Celtics into the longest streak of playoff failure in their history. It was the freak deaths of Bias and Lewis that did that.
Ainge created the problem with Ray Allen and subsequently Rondo by publicly shopping them on the trade market. Danny has a whole lot to learn about how to treat and manage players.