would you trade Rondo for a lottery pick?

[crimson_stallion]

No way! 

If I were Danny and any opposing GM offered me this I would chuckle and then hang up the phone.

Rajon Rondo is:
* A multi-time All-Star
* A 4 time All-Defensive team selection
* The current NBA Assist leader
* One of the highest IQ players in the league today
* The current NBA leader (among active players) career triple doubles
* A Veteran with championship experience
* A pass-first guard who can change the outcome of a game without taking a shot
* A Warrior who plays through pain that would have most players out for a season
* Loyal and willing to stay with the Celtics through a rebuild

He may have some flaws in his game (shooting) and his personality (hot head, etc) but guys with Rondo's level of talent come across very rarely. 

Why would you throw that away for a guy who "might" be a superstar?  Look at Penny Hardaway, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden - guys who all had elite talent but had very short lived careers due to injury.  Look at guys like Dwight Howard, Demarcus Cousins and Andrew Bynum - guys talented enough to be all-time greats, but held back by personality problems.

Look at guys like Lebron and Bosh, who developed into Elite players only to give up on their teams and sign as free agents with other clubs (their teams getting nothing in return).

So no, not in a milion years would I make that trade.  It would take a young All-Star calibre player (or a young player with All-Star potential) - someone like Paul George or Greg Monroe - for me to evern consider trading Rondo.

[bobbyv]

No. Key word is lottery

[crimson_stallion]

Another thing to consider - how will the addition of Rondo affect the team you are trading him to? Because just about any team will improve with the addition of somebody as good as Rondo.

Take a bad lottery team like Sacramento.  The combination of Rondo and Demarcus Cousins makes for a pretty impressive duo.  Adding Rondo's IQ and championship experience (plus of course his skill set) to a young team like that could propel them big time. They might move from a bottom 3 lottery team up to a 10th seed in the West, narrowly missing the playoffs and putting Boston's highly costly pick right in the middle of NBA Draft mediocrity.

Unless you are getting a guaranteed top 5 pick you aren't likely to get a player of Rondo's calibre back, and a bottom 5 team is not guaranteed to remain a bottom team once they add Rondo to their roster. 

Something to think on when considering a trade of this nature

[JBcat]

If it was a top 8 pick then I'd say yes.
It depends if we want to blow it up then of course.
If we are thinking of making a run at some 2014 or 2015 free agents then obviously not because we need him.

Hard to tell what Danny will do until the All star break and Rondo shows the league what he's worth.
Danny might just go all in for the draft and trade Rondo at the All star break for another high pick If he can get one.
He may figure if he can put two top 10 picks with Sully and Olynyk then we're better off.

What people aren't considering in this thread is that Rondo is up for free agency soon so it may be worth moving him before he walks to new york or los angeles in 2014.

If we trade Rondo we might as well trade Green too for a draft pick and/or younger players.  I'm not sure this is the best strategy though.

[McHales Pits]

No way! 

If I were Danny and any opposing GM offered me this I would chuckle and then hang up the phone.

Rajon Rondo is:
* A multi-time All-Star
* A 4 time All-Defensive team selection
* The current NBA Assist leader
* One of the highest IQ players in the league today
* The current NBA leader (among active players) career triple doubles
* A Veteran with championship experience
* A pass-first guard who can change the outcome of a game without taking a shot
* A Warrior who plays through pain that would have most players out for a season
* Loyal and willing to stay with the Celtics through a rebuild

He may have some flaws in his game (shooting) and his personality (hot head, etc) but guys with Rondo's level of talent come across very rarely. 

Why would you throw that away for a guy who "might" be a superstar?  Look at Penny Hardaway, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden - guys who all had elite talent but had very short lived careers due to injury.  Look at guys like Dwight Howard, Demarcus Cousins and Andrew Bynum - guys talented enough to be all-time greats, but held back by personality problems.

Look at guys like Lebron and Bosh, who developed into Elite players only to give up on their teams and sign as free agents with other clubs (their teams getting nothing in return).

So no, not in a milion years would I make that trade.  It would take a young All-Star calibre player (or a young player with All-Star potential) - someone like Paul George or Greg Monroe - for me to evern consider trading Rondo.

My first ever TP given. Well done, sir.

My thoughts are...

Why give up Rondo for a lotto pick when we can probably suck on our own for a lotto pick to pair with Rondo, Green, Sully, Olynyk, Bradley + ?

[nostar]

just a stunningly bad idea.  tell you what give me 20 bucks and I'll give you 10 powerball tickets.  odds aren't much better in the draft

I disagree with this completely. Not only is the analogy completely meaningless the point itself is wrong. The odds of landing a good/great player in the draft are far higher than winning a significant prize the lottery.

That said I'm not sure I would trade Rondo either. I guess I'm sort of in the top-3 camp and as many others have said the top-3 lotto teams in this draft probably aren't going to give up their picks for Rondo, great though he is.

The thing not being mentioned a lot in this thread is that  Rondo makes $12M this year, $13M next year and is closing in on a big pay day. This should factor in heavily in the decision making which is why I'd argue that Rondo isn't worth a top-3 lotto pick in 2014. He'll command a max deal in 2 years and while he is an all-star the rookie wage scale is just too good for most rebuilding teams to pass up. I'm not sure I'd give up a top-3 pick in this draft for John Wall or Deron Williams. Actually I definitely wouldn't give one up for Williams. Rondo is soon to be in that club of very good, flawed PGs that command a max deal.

Oh and we'd have to trade Rondo to team for some salary, maybe expiring but probably not. Let's say ESPN is right and the Suns, Magic and the Sixers end up with the 1/2/3 picks, that means we need to take back around 12M to avoid luxury tax payments. Think Turkoglu or Beasly/Dragic. This complicates things a little and certainly sours the deal a bit for the C's too.

I think the best thing to do is dwell in the cellar with those teams this year and try to land one of those picks while keeping our amazingly talented point guard. That's just my two-cents. I like to have my cake and eat it too.

[rondoallaturca]

What people aren't considering in this thread is that Rondo is up for free agency soon so it may be worth moving him before he walks to new york or los angeles in 2014.

If only all of us were Rondo insiders like you.

[chambers]

What people aren't considering in this thread is that Rondo is up for free agency soon so it may be worth moving him before he walks to new york or los angeles in 2014.

If only all of us were Rondo insiders like you.

You're saying there's not a serious possibility of this happening?
If we don't manage to get Kevin Love or Durant or Lebron or Carmelo or one of the other key free agents this offseason or next offseason.-or if two guys like Durant and Love decide to team together as is the recent star trend in the NBA-inviting Rondo to join them in the process Is very possible.
Carmelo has publicly stated he wants to play with Rondo, so has Kobe. I guarantee he'll be getting calls and text messages from multiple stars as his free agency looms and if we still suck why would he stick around?

Oh I forgot Rondo told you he won't leave when you had lunch with him yesterday?

Consider the very real possibility that we don't get lucky enough to sign a key free agent and remain a mediocre team for a good 3-6 seasons. Why would a player who loves the spotlight and the playoff rush hang around an 8th seed battler?

I'm guessing that Danny is trying to go all in and get him 2 more All Star players. Thats a very hard task though and to get one of them via trade (ie Aldridge), we have to get lucky and have the pieces that a team like the Blazers want.
He may even try to trade our potential top 10 pick +assets for an Aldridge or Love type big man but they'll demand a lot In return.
If Danny can't pull it off though, Rondo really has no reason to hang around and waste away his prime on a mid level team when the spotlight is calling.

Many Rondo lovers like myself would like to think he'd never leave for the fame and lights but when the decision is staring him in the face it's a different story. Winners want to play on winning teams. Rondo isn't good enough like Lebron or Durant to be the best player on a contender-he needs help and if we don't get it we are in trouble.

[chambers]

No way! 

If I were Danny and any opposing GM offered me this I would chuckle and then hang up the phone.

Rajon Rondo is:
* A multi-time All-Star
* A 4 time All-Defensive team selection
* The current NBA Assist leader
* One of the highest IQ players in the league today
* The current NBA leader (among active players) career triple doubles
* A Veteran with championship experience
* A pass-first guard who can change the outcome of a game without taking a shot
* A Warrior who plays through pain that would have most players out for a season
* Loyal and willing to stay with the Celtics through a rebuild

He may have some flaws in his game (shooting) and his personality (hot head, etc) but guys with Rondo's level of talent come across very rarely. 

Why would you throw that away for a guy who "might" be a superstar?  Look at Penny Hardaway, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden - guys who all had elite talent but had very short lived careers due to injury.  Look at guys like Dwight Howard, Demarcus Cousins and Andrew Bynum - guys talented enough to be all-time greats, but held back by personality problems.

Look at guys like Lebron and Bosh, who developed into Elite players only to give up on their teams and sign as free agents with other clubs (their teams getting nothing in return).

So no, not in a milion years would I make that trade.  It would take a young All-Star calibre player (or a young player with All-Star potential) - someone like Paul George or Greg Monroe - for me to evern consider trading Rondo.

Nothings guaranteed in the NBA. But there is a likely hood that this draft produces multiple players better than Monroe,  Rondo and Paul George. It's not a given but the expert consensus is that the next NBA superstar will come out of this draft.

We need to get at least one starting caliber All Star level player (top 10 in the NBA) with him and probably another top 25 player to seriously contend. To avoid Rondo walking away in free agency we need to do this within 18 months.

If we stank (bottom 3) this season, and traded Rondo for a top 6 pick, we'd have 2 shots at the most talented lottery in 10 years.
We've already got Sully and Olynyk and a haul of draft picks in the next few seasons so if he decides to go that route it's understandable.

As good as Rondo is, he's not the number one option on a contender.
Danny Ainge is analyzing the potential market for the next 2 seasons and has a shortlist of guys he wants to put with Rondo.
He'll weigh the possibility of pulling off trades for those guys vs the odds of drafting a potential Durant or Paul Pierce type player or two of players over the next 2-4 seasons of drafts.

At the end of the day Rondo is still unproven without a star supporting cast. He has severe shooting weaknesses which prevent him being a reliable scoring option for an 82 game season.

[colincb]

I can't recall any trade similar to the one proposed by the OP.

[LilRip]

It depends what the OP means by "lottery pick". If its trading for a first rounder for a potentially bad team like the sixers, I wouldn't do it. Too much can change over the course of a season.

But if the 2013-14 season is over and the lottery has been drawn, and someone in the top 3 offered us their pick for Rondo, I'd do it. Thus, the question becomes, how low of a pick would you trade him for? I don't think I'd accept a pick past #9.

[crimson_stallion]

Yes, but here's the problem.  If you want a very good chance at drafting the next superstar, you need to get a pick in the top 5.  Anything outside of that is a big gamble.

To get a top 5 pick you need to trade to a really bad team, then that team needs to stay equally bad even at acquiring Rondo, and then on top of all that the lottery balls need to fall in your favor.  That is a lot of scenarios that need to fall into place, and that's not even taking into consideration the risk of whether the player actually meets expectations (i.e. you don't end up with a Oden or Milicic).

This season KO was drafted 13th overall, and so far at summer league he has easily outperformed all but maybe 1 or 2 players who went before him.  Same wa true for Sullinger last season - he had far more impact than Thomas Robinson did for Sacramento.

If you are trading with the absolute guarantee that you will get a top 3 pick them I understand why some people like this idea...but there's no such guarantee.  You could throw Rondo away and still end up with only a #12 pick.

Another factor is that all of these highly conveted draftees seem extremely young...what if the big names decide to stay back another year? Then you trade into a draft that is not so impressive.

[Moranis]

I do not believe there is a single team that will likely be in next year's lottery that would trade the pick for Rondo at any time before the end of next season.  Pick holds way more value than Rondo.

[JBcat]

If Aonge goes this route I'd much rather wait until the end of the season, and the lottery is sorted out, and that's if a team is willing to trade with us at that point.  Otherwise if we trade during the season it's a bit more of a gamble not knowing exactly where we are going to draft. 

[BballTim]

I do not believe there is a single team that will likely be in next year's lottery that would trade the pick for Rondo at any time before the end of next season.  Pick holds way more value than Rondo.

  Possibly true, but most of those teams will end up with players who never get to Rondo's level. For instance, you'd have probably made a similar comment before each of the last few drafts, but the number of players from any recent draft that will clearly be better than Rondo is pretty small.