I'm convinced that fantasy sports, in combination with the internet, has changed sports fandom, in some ways for the worse. Fans are amazingly knowledgable. In depth knowledge of players around the league is commonplace, and player-swapping is endlessly fun to talk about. The bird in the bush always has brighter plumage, the grass is always greener and if only we had so and so, wouldn't it be great?
Trade fever is hot right now, and I suspect it's largely fed by frustration of the way we finished this year. We really should have won a championship this year, or come close to one. People are looking for someone to blame, and it's always easiest to blame the players. Big Baby and Rondo seem to be getting most of the blame. In a way, that's understandable. Both players are so inconsistent. At Rondo's peak this year, he was an mvp candidate. At Baby's peak, he was a leading candidate for the sixth man award. But, at times, one wondered why they were getting any floor time at all.
And we are entering a period of uncertainty. People feel anxiety about that, which magnifies the uncertainties we feel about Rondo in particular. Is Rondo a guy we can build the future around? All the uncertainty magnifies Rondo's flaws.
But remember, part of the reason we constantly think about trading Rondo is that we know a lot of teams would jump at the chance. That should tell us something.