Will Boston retire Rondo's number?

[RJ87]

Rondo will, IMHO, win more championships with the second "championship team" that Ainge builds than he will have with the big three.

Check this out - Pierce, Ray and KG gone, who's left?

Perkins / Erden
Big Baby
Harangody
DWest / Bradley
Rondo / Nate

Ainge has positioned us to be well under the salary cap in teh summer of 2012. We "might" be able to add two max free agents to that young, tough and experienced young nucleus above.

If the chips fall right, we might start competing for championships immediatley again, without skipping a beat.

It depends how we do in the summer of 2012 and also how Ainge drafts the next two years for more role players.

2011 draft - draft a solid guy as a back up small forward
2012 draft - draft a solid guy as a back up off guard.

Ainge will build two great, championship teams before he's done. Having locked up Perkins and Rondo at the vitally important point and center positions, plus some nice role players already, he's half way to building his second as we speak.

Ainge is a "very good" GM  

 

If we keep that nucleus, then we won't be able to add 2 max guys. Keep in mind, Pierce is signed for 4 yrs, not 2 like KG and Ray. And in the last 2 years of his deal, he'll make around $16m both years.

But then again, who know how the new CBA will shake out and what kind of cap situation will be dealing with. However, I think if we add a 2nd "star" (D12 is an FA in 2012) we'd be solid and can contend.

[dpaps]

Too early. If Rondo continues to play at this level, and he stays a Celtic for the majority of his career, maybe. But, championships are currency when it comes to this in boston, and Rondo only has one.

  Rondo will retire with at least as many titles as Paul Pierce. Food for thought.

beat me to it. 

if PP never wins another title, his number will still be retired.  The funny thing is, even if Rondo plays at a superstar level for the rest of his career and he retires a C, he may have a greater difficulty getting his number retired than PP if he never wins another title because it came so early in his career.   

not that I don't think they'll win the title the next 2 years, but in the odd event that they don't, Rondo may have a greater difficulty getting his number retired.

Kind of my thought too.

The Celtics are a different animal than any other team, excepting possibly the Lakers. The Celtics wouldn't have retired Barkley's #. PP will get his retired, and as BBall said, Rondo will have just as many or more titles than Pierce does when he retires, but unless they take another chip, Rondo won't get it.

He could average 12 assists per season for the next 6 years, but unless the Celtics stay at the top the "rondo era" won't merit his # retirement.

I disagree with this big time. The Celtics wouldn't have retired Barkley's number? Not sure on this, but I'm pretty sure the Celtics have retired more numbers than any other team, including the likes of Satch Sanders, Bill Sharman, Ed Macauley, Frank Ramsey, and Jim Loscutoff.... If Rondo stays with the Celtics his whole career and doesn't suffer any serious injuries, he should get his number retired, because he's gonna put up silly assist and steal numbers and he's already been NBA first team all defense.

[Rondo_is_better]

This is kind of a premature thread, don't you think?

[fairweatherfan]

Too early now of course.  But if Rondo stays a Celtic and is relatively injury-free, he'll get up there someday. 

[Celtics/Run]

This is kind of a premature thread, don't you think?

NBA careers are short.

[Rondo_is_better]

This is kind of a premature thread, don't you think?

NBA careers are short.

Not that short. He's 24. He has at least 10 more years to go assuming moderate (Ray Allen level) health.

[paul]

If Rondo continues to play for the Celtics and at this level, he'll be in the Hall of Fame, so yes, of course, his Celtics number will be retired.

[crownsy]

Too early. If Rondo continues to play at this level, and he stays a Celtic for the majority of his career, maybe. But, championships are currency when it comes to this in boston, and Rondo only has one.

  Rondo will retire with at least as many titles as Paul Pierce. Food for thought.

And when Has anything like paul's body of work this discussion will be fun.

Get back to me in 8-10 years and I'll let yo know. Certainly off to a good start though

[indeedproceed]

I disagree with this big time. The Celtics wouldn't have retired Barkley's number? Not sure on this, but I'm pretty sure the Celtics have retired more numbers than any other team, including the likes of Satch Sanders, Bill Sharman, Ed Macauley, Frank Ramsey, and Jim Loscutoff.... If Rondo stays with the Celtics his whole career and doesn't suffer any serious injuries, he should get his number retired, because he's gonna put up silly assist and steal numbers and he's already been NBA first team all defense.

Satch Sanders: 8 titles
Bill Sharman: 4 titles
Loscutoff: 7 titles

Guys with less than 2 Championships as players with their #'s retired:
Ed McCauley, Red Auerbach, Walter Brown, Reggie Lewis

Guys who played after '70 with less than 2 titles as a player with their #'s retired:
Reggie Lewis

Tell me how Barkely would've been retired if he had won no chips? Paul Pierce will be retired because of all the crappy years he suffered through, and his Finals MVP. Rondo might have won the Finals MVP last year if we would've won, but we'll never know because we didn't.

Rondo needs to win one, maybe two with the current group, (where he is the best player) or he needs to lead the team to a chip outright after the old guard retires.

Also, keep in mind that if these guys win another chip, Rondo is not the next in line to get a # retired. After him its KG, after KG, then it is Rondo, but possibly Ray.

The Celtics don't retire players based on stats alone, or ECF wins or anything really beyond titles. Titles first, then among the guys who have won, sort out who is deserving.

[dpaps]

Rondo already has a championship and has played in 2 finals. He's 24 years old and averages 11 pts, 15 asts, 3 steals and is all NBA first team defense. If he keeps this up for another 12 years, and makes 7 or 8 more defensive first teams and a handful of all NBA first teams, it's pretty hard to not retire his number.

 It's easy to say the Celtics haven't retired someone's number who has less than 2 chips, but no one has ever put up numbers like Rondo. So it's not a perfect comparison. He's breaking NBA records. Has there ever been a Celtics player with these kinds of stats who doesn't have his number retired? Who do people think is the Celtics player with the best stats (lets say after 1970 or so) not to have their number retired?

Who decides on who's number gets retired by the way? Is it solely on Wyc? Is there some sort of vote?

[DarkAzcura]

lol Rondo doesn't need to win anymore championships to have his number retired here. He just needs to play here at least another 7-8 years and break the Celtics all-time assist record. Rondo at this pace will definitely have his number retired.

Arguments that Rondo doesn't have enough championships even if he continues this level of play are weak. Paul Pierce was going to make it a few years ago just because it looked like he was going to be a career Celtic, and he had nice stats (anyone who denies this now has revisionist history). The championship just made it so that he could leave the Celtics if he wanted and STILL have his number retired.

Numbers retired for the Celtics based on championships have only occurred for AVERAGE players. A player who breaks all kind of Celtic records, even if he doesn't win a championship, must be acknowledged in someway. It's like ignoring a chunk of Celtics history.

Plus saying players with less then 2 championships aren't retired by the Celtics is such a silly stat. Of course Reggie Lewis is the only one..the Celtics ALWAYS win. Paul Pierce is the first Celtic they ever had that put up HUGE stats through a huge drought of winning. If the Celtics didn't get KG and Ray Allen, Pierce would have definitely broken that "trend" and his number would be retired with 0 championships. Let's say the C's don't win a championship in the next two years. Pierce is still going to have his number retired with ONE championship. He breaks that trend you posted right there (of two championships being necessary). Now according to your argument, Rondo now has a chance to have his number retired, right? I mean he has that one championship. Bigtime players get their numbers retired based on the stats they accumulate with the team. It's only role players that get their number retired based on championships. If Rondo's field of work is being a 12 year Celtic, with averages of 15/5/10, you bet he's going to be retired even with JUST one championship.

[Celtics/Run]

Rondo has an off game and still drops 17 dimes. All time great.

[patterson.adam]

Yes.

[GreenEnvy]

I disagree with this big time. The Celtics wouldn't have retired Barkley's number? Not sure on this, but I'm pretty sure the Celtics have retired more numbers than any other team, including the likes of Satch Sanders, Bill Sharman, Ed Macauley, Frank Ramsey, and Jim Loscutoff.... If Rondo stays with the Celtics his whole career and doesn't suffer any serious injuries, he should get his number retired, because he's gonna put up silly assist and steal numbers and he's already been NBA first team all defense.

Satch Sanders: 8 titles
Bill Sharman: 4 titles
Loscutoff: 7 titles

Guys with less than 2 Championships as players with their #'s retired:
Ed McCauley, Red Auerbach, Walter Brown, Reggie Lewis

Guys who played after '70 with less than 2 titles as a player with their #'s retired:
Reggie Lewis

Tell me how Barkely would've been retired if he had won no chips? Paul Pierce will be retired because of all the crappy years he suffered through, and his Finals MVP. Rondo might have won the Finals MVP last year if we would've won, but we'll never know because we didn't.

Rondo needs to win one, maybe two with the current group, (where he is the best player) or he needs to lead the team to a chip outright after the old guard retires.

Also, keep in mind that if these guys win another chip, Rondo is not the next in line to get a # retired. After him its KG, after KG, then it is Rondo, but possibly Ray.

The Celtics don't retire players based on stats alone, or ECF wins or anything really beyond titles. Titles first, then among the guys who have won, sort out who is deserving.

Are you insinuating Pierce would not have his number retired if he didn't win a championship? With or without any banners Pierce has to have his number retired. He was a perennial all-star and the only glimmer of hope for a whole decade and their only bright spot since the '80's.

The ring and MVP was just the icing on the HOF, but several more years of all-star level play would've gotten him in anyway (like VC will probably get in).

[guava_wrench]

The championships really are irrelevant if he plays here his whole career and is an all-NBA caliber player.

Guys back in the day had a lot of titles because they were riding on the coattails of the true elite players on the Celtics.