I've always been an avid, die hard Rondo advocate - I just think he's a rare, game changing talent and if you give him the right, young running mates as weapons as we rebuild he'll soon be leading us to conference finals and NBA finals again.
That being said, if Ainge wanted to take a shot at jump starting the rebuilding process, here are two possible teams and trades I think would help that:
Danny Ainge could potentially reload this team in one fell swoop in this draft with one move – trading Rajon Rondo to one of two possible teams.
Team One: The Portland Trailblazers
Rondo to Portland for Raymond Felton the 6th and 11th picks
• If Portland turned down that trade they would be foolish. They don’t need two more unproven picks in the mid lottery. They need another bona fide stud to go with Aldridge and some other nice complimentary pieces they currently have in place.
• For the Celtics, we now have four picks: 6th, 11th, 21nd & 223rd
Team Two: The Sacramento Kings
Rondo to Scaramento for Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson and the 5th
• The Kings have Marcus Thornton to play the off guard spot, Rondo and Thornton makes a great back court. The Rondo / Cousins pairing, much like the Rondo / Aldridge pairing puts Sacramento in the running.
• Celtics now have Tyreke Evans / Bradley Backcourt with the 5th, 21st and 22nd picks.
We get more talent back because Rondo brings those two teams a new ability to draw quality free agents who want to pile onto the Aldridge and/or Cousins /Rondo combo.
Of course it is understood that a very, very solid argument could be made “not” to trade Rondo because of his obvious talent/value and you could simply continue to build around him. But if you hit that Lottery right with the 5th and/or 6th & 11th picks and then added the 21st and 22nd picks as well, you’d have a very promising young crop of talent in Boston.
Celtics after the trade with Portland:
Free agent center / Steamer
KG / Bass / JJJ
Pierce / Jeff Green
Ray / Bradley
Felton / Moore
• 6th, 11th, 21st & 22nd picks
• Free agency
Not bad.
Portland:
Free agent center / Thabeet
Aldridge / Hickson
Batum / Babbit
Matthews / Crawford
Rondo / Flynn
• Batum, Matthews and Aldridge all become dramatically “better” players with Rondo setting them up.
Celtics after the trade with Sacramento:
Free agent center / Jason Thompson / Steamer
KG / Bass / JJJ
Pierce / Jeff Green
Ray / Bradley
Tyreke / Moore
• 5th, 21st and 22nd picks
• Free agency
Not bad either.
Sacramento:
Cousins / Whiteside
Free agent Power Forward / Chuck Hayes
Travis Outlaw / Garcia
Thornton / Salmons
Rondo / Isaiah Thomas
• With a couple of smart free agent signings ( maybe Ersan Illyasova at PF to compliment Cousins inside game & a more legit small forward to start, that team would be a bear)
If I’m Portland or Sacramento I would do those trades in a heartbeat, because, draft picks are no guarantee and I’m not winning big time with the likes of Felton, Thompson and Tyreke now. In contrast, if you pair Rondo with Aldridge or Cousins you now have a ½ punch that you can build something special onto. I guess that argument could be made for therefore keeping Rondo in Boston… this is just a hypothetical, food for thought post.