even if it means moving your young top 6 PG for an equally talented player of a different position.
It's like this... Vlade Divac was a star center for the Lakers. Shaq became available... they signed Shaq and traded Divac for Kobe. I'm sure if a brave LarBrd33-esque Laker fan had floated the idea before it happened, you'd have a bunch of Laker fans saying, "NO Way would I give up DIvac!!... where's your loyalty, pre-internet-boom-message-board LarBrd33-esque Laker fan?!"
Fair enough, I see your logic.
And I just want to be sure of that equally talented player of different position we are trading Rondo for. Just who is that Top 6 (whatever position he's playing for) player?
I floated the idea of Josh Smith or Al Jefferson. Those were easy, because Smith wants out of Atlanta and I'm sure they'd JUMP at getting a top 6 point guard to pair with Horford. IN jefferson's case, they already have two big men sitting on their bench who are their future (Favors and Kanter) and would probably GLADLY bring in Rondo (I mean shoot... especially if Rondo actually IS better than Deron) ...
But perhaps Rondo's value is even greater than that. I didn't want to suggest anything outrageous. One poster just mentioned Melo. I could see it (Lin isn't that good). I offered up the pipe dream of Rondo + both 1st rounders for Dwight to appease the fans who think Rondo is a superstar.... and also, because landing Deron might convince Dwight to demand a trade to Boston. He wants to play with Deron desperately.
So I'll put Rondo's value somewhere between Josh Smith and Dwight Howard. But personally I'm in favor of trading Rondo for someone still on their rookie contract so that we can free up additional cap room. Rondo for DeMarcus Cousins, for example. you do that, you'd have money left over to bring back KG and Ray to play with Pierce, Cousins and Deron.
Again, none of this matters because Deron is either sticking in Brooklyn or going to Dallas. Still... there's some pipe dreams we could think about. If Orlando's situation gets worse and they decide to trade Dwight... I can see the Nets offering a big package centered on Brook Lopez (hoping to land Dwight and convince Deron to re-sign)... Maybe at that point we call up Deron and say, "hey... if we trade Rondo and picks for Dwight will you sign with us?"