Ian Thomsen: Thinks C's will trade Rondo

[Celtics18]

If anything that Aldridge story is evidence that journalists aren't above making up stuff about players looking for max contracts when they have no idea what they are talking about.

Presumably, they are just looking at the max number available and assuming that the player in question is going to be making demands that this is what he's worth.

It's very likely this is what Thomsen is doing in this case. 

[D.o.s.]

Because we all know Tomsen's job security isn't at risk when he makes things up and puts them in print.

Especially when you compare it to someone who's an NBA GM.

[action781]

Rondo has never made a claim to desire max money. A quick google search shows everyone talking about max money being what Rondo wants appears to be coming from bloggers and not plugged in basketball reports

He has said publicly he doesn't like change  and loves Boston

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4713122/rondo-leftovers-i-want-to-win-now

He declined an extension, which Ainge thought he would in January but that has more to do with length of contract than anything else. It also explains why he wants to get to UFA because then the team can offer him maybe his career contract, a 5 year deal. Given his kids are now in school in Boston and he loves his home and neighborhood and hates change, it makes sense that Rondo would go to UFA and then get a fair 5 year deal. He gets his long term security, Boston gets a bit of a discount away from a max deal.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/25/rajon-rondo-offered-contract-extension-by-celtics-says-he-wouldnt-mind-finishing-his-career-in-boston/

I don't see any way Rondo is traded anytime soon. He is Celtics now and that is important to this franchise. Ainge will elect to build around Rondo rather than trade him and try to win a dog fight with puppies

Which is pretty much what I thought. 

I think a lot of it is wishful thinking from some bloggers to justify his exit from the Celtics.

Not so fast. This was from the very credible David Aldridge and prior to him being named to a single all-star team.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/10/26/rondo.extension/

The meeting between the Celtics and Rondo's agent, Bill Duffy, came after two weeks of relatively amiable discussions about the parameters of a new deal for the 23-year-old Rondo, who has become one of the league's better young point guards despite periods of occasional drift and clashing with Coach Doc Rivers. But the discussions haven't yet led to a consensus on how to pay Rondo in a potential five-year deal. Rondo and Duffy are seeking a maximum or near-max contract that would pay him between $80 and $85 million; the Celtics are loath to put anything near that much into Rondo, given their existing expenditures for star players like Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

  Not so credible in this case:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/celtics-rondo-55-million-extension-081000953--nba.html

 "Duffy said he called Celtics president Danny Ainge on Sunday to inform him Rondo was prepared to play out his contract and become a restricted free agent next summer because they weren?t satisfied with the team?s previous offers. Ainge, however, surprised Duffy by responding that Rondo?s contract hopes would be met.

?As much as we were willing to wait his contract out, the Celtics stepped up to the plate to meet the original request,? Duffy said by phone"

  This was widely reported at the time. The Celts made an offer of somewhere around $45M, Duffy said no, so they met his asking price. That was nowhere near a max deal.

Yeah, this sounds like how I remember things happening.

From these comments, it sounds pretty clear that what Duffy & Rondo asked for was, indeed $55M, not the 80-85M that Aldridge claimed.

With absolutely zero knowledge of the situation, this is how I think it played out.

I feel very confident that the initial asking price was 80-85M, then they came down and settled to 55M.  There is a LOT of motivation from Duffy to put out this story of "we came to the table asking for 55M, we didn't get it so walked away, then they came back to us in agreement of our original offer" to send a message to GMs around the league about what will happen in future negotiations with Duffy.  Give him their original offer or they are walking away.  Ainge would have loved to rebuff him on that point, but knows that getting into a p---ing war through the media over who "won" the negotiation will only hurt the franchise's image so keeps his mouth shut.

[Celtics18]

Because we all know Tomsen's job security isn't at risk when he makes things up and puts them in print.

Especially when you compare it to someone who's an NBA GM.

Sigh. 

[D.o.s.]

1- It makes zero sense for the agent to ask for less than the max.

2- It makes zero sense for the journalist to report something that's wrong.

3- It makes perfect sense for Ainge to throw shade on the agent and the journalist in the press.

I'm not sure why this is such a leap for some people.

[Celtics18]

1- It makes zero sense for the agent to ask for less than the max.

2- It makes zero sense for the journalist to report something that's wrong.

3- It makes perfect sense for Ainge to throw shade on the agent and the journalist in the press.

I'm not sure why this is such a leap for some people.

1.  Has the agent made any official announcement that you know of that Rondo is asking for max money in the summer of 2015?  If he makes it to the summer of 2015 as a free agent, Rondo takes the best deal he gets, right?  What's all this "asking for" business, anyway?

2.  Thomsen didn't really "report anything that was wrong."  He didn't really report anything at all.  He made a conjecture with the air of someone who knew what he was taiking about.  It's not quite blatant enough to be called actually "making something up," but definitely juicy enough to get repeated all over the internet.

This seems like very standard operating procedure for sports journalism these days.  It's not exactly unethical, but let's recognize it for what it is, and stop pretending that these kinds of remarks necessarily represent any kind of hard knowledge about anything.

3.  I have no idea what kind of shade Ainge is throwing here.  I haven't seen any reports about this from him.

[MBunge]

1- It makes zero sense for the agent to ask for less than the max.

2- It makes zero sense for the journalist to report something that's wrong.

1.  So, Avery Bradley is going to ask for max money?  You don't always ask for the absolute maximum to start in negotiations.  That's a sure ticket to just anger the other side and make their counteroffer worse.  You'd ask for the max you think you can get, but that's not always the most you could theoretically ask for.

2.  When is the last time you watched/read/listened to the news?

Mike

[D.o.s.]

1- It makes zero sense for the agent to ask for less than the max.

2- It makes zero sense for the journalist to report something that's wrong.

1.  So, Avery Bradley is going to ask for max money?  You don't always ask for the absolute maximum to start in negotiations.  That's a sure ticket to just anger the other side and make their counteroffer worse.  You'd ask for the max you think you can get, but that's not always the most you could theoretically ask for.

2.  When is the last time you watched/read/listened to the news?

Mike

When did you stop beating your wife?

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

If this is true, we'd be drafting smart.

If this is not true, we still could be drafting Smart.

lol

[Neurotic Guy]

If this is true, we'd be drafting smart.

Good philosophy: Draft smart and trade for love.

[mmmmm]

1- It makes zero sense for the agent to ask for less than the max.

Unless an agent believes legitimately that he has a reasonable chance of actually getting that price, that's a stupid way to start negotiations because that can lead to inadvertent consequences.

If an agent starts off demanding way above what his player might actually settle for, then he might get a phone call the next day indicating the player has been traded because he foolishly lead the GM to believe that there is no acceptable middle ground.

Ultimatums and extreme positions sound juicy and entertaining in new stories and blogging about player contract negotiations, but this is business, with millions of dollars and careers at stake.

2- It makes zero sense for the journalist to report something that's wrong.

Oh my god.  That was ridiculously funny!

My sides hurt.  Please don't do that again.

3- It makes perfect sense for Ainge to throw shade on the agent and the journalist in the press.

I have no idea what the heck you are talking about since there seemed to be no quotes from Ainge in any of this.