Report: Rondo wants to test free agency

[bello_man09]

we have to see how rondo plays...he's not going to attract  much vaule playing with that big knee brace on his leg..he has to come back this season and show the nba that he can come back to his 2012-2013 form..

[mmmmm]

If rondo is traded. Before the season or deadline. Do you think rondo would consider signing back us in the off season just like lester could maybe come back to the sox

Get a return for rondo, then have him re sign

There are rules in place to prevent that sort of situation, unfortunately. In fact, one of the incentives behind changing the rule was Danny trading 'Toine or someone like that and then resigning him a month later.

That, though I think the Ilgauskas trade-to-be-cut-and-resigned by Cleveland a few years ago was the final straw that resulted in the rule change.

[chambers]

This is such a 'not news' item.

There is no quote.  No source of new information or anything.  This is just a throw-away line by Washburn, making a casual assertion in support of his larger message (which is that the Celtics need to reduce their current roster size).

This is old news but the old news about this was actual quotes from Rondo saying he wants to explore and experience free agency.
 Doesn't mean he'll leave but we have to believe it will be mighty tempting for him when he gets offers from Darryl Morey to go out West with Harden and Howard while we are still searching for a star. Danny will be prepared and have something lined up that's extremely attractive.

Will be interesting to speculate what Danny's plan is. I'd hope it includes going after Hibbert and another All star of some kind. Let's just hope it's enough to keep him around.

I think the Knicks and Rockets are our biggest threat at the moment, so if we so sign and trade him to the Rockets, we should get back some okay pieces, but nothing anyone will be happy with.
If he leaves it's going to seriously hurt.
Thinking about Phil Jackson and Carmelo trying to woo him is a horrible thought, or seeing him wearing a Rockets jersey on a giant billboard and not knowing which way he's gonna go is going to be awful. If he's as good as he was 2 years ago then the competition will be very fierce. He'll playing his ass off for that contract too so at least we'll know if he can be top 3 point guard Rondo again.

[Celtics18]

This is such a 'not news' item.

There is no quote.  No source of new information or anything.  This is just a throw-away line by Washburn, making a casual assertion in support of his larger message (which is that the Celtics need to reduce their current roster size).

This is old news but the old news about this was actual quotes from Rondo saying he wants to explore and experience free agency.
 Doesn't mean he'll leave but we have to believe it will be mighty tempting for him when he gets offers from Darryl Morey to go out West with Harden and Howard while we are still searching for a star. Danny will be prepared and have something lined up that's extremely attractive.

Will be interesting to speculate what Danny's plan is. I'd hope it includes going after Hibbert and another All star of some kind. Let's just hope it's enough to keep him around.

I think the Knicks and Rockets are our biggest threat at the moment, so if we so sign and trade him to the Rockets, we should get back some okay pieces, but nothing anyone will be happy with.
If he leaves it's going to seriously hurt.
Thinking about Phil Jackson and Carmelo trying to woo him is a horrible thought, or seeing him wearing a Rockets jersey on a giant billboard and not knowing which way he's gonna go is going to be awful. If he's as good as he was 2 years ago then the competition will be very fierce. He'll playing his ass off for that contract too so at least we'll know if he can be top 3 point guard Rondo again.

This is something I'm very excited to see.

[dark_lord]

i say trade him and try to get something for him.  imo, he isn't a max guy

[D.o.s.]

This is such a 'not news' item.

There is no quote.  No source of new information or anything.  This is just a throw-away line by Washburn, making a casual assertion in support of his larger message (which is that the Celtics need to reduce their current roster size).

This is old news but the old news about this was actual quotes from Rondo saying he wants to explore and experience free agency.
 Doesn't mean he'll leave but we have to believe it will be mighty tempting for him when he gets offers from Darryl Morey to go out West with Harden and Howard while we are still searching for a star. Danny will be prepared and have something lined up that's extremely attractive.

Will be interesting to speculate what Danny's plan is. I'd hope it includes going after Hibbert and another All star of some kind. Let's just hope it's enough to keep him around.

I think the Knicks and Rockets are our biggest threat at the moment, so if we so sign and trade him to the Rockets, we should get back some okay pieces, but nothing anyone will be happy with.
If he leaves it's going to seriously hurt.
Thinking about Phil Jackson and Carmelo trying to woo him is a horrible thought, or seeing him wearing a Rockets jersey on a giant billboard and not knowing which way he's gonna go is going to be awful. If he's as good as he was 2 years ago then the competition will be very fierce. He'll playing his ass off for that contract too so at least we'll know if he can be top 3 point guard Rondo again.

I don't think he'll be sign and traded if he leaves.

[Snottie Drippen]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

I agree.

Fully agree. Rondo seems happy, Celts will have a ton of contracts coming off the books at the end of the year, why not see how it shakes out?

Actually wrote about it here:

http://hoopshabit.com/2014/08/19/boston-celtics-rajon-rondo-quandary/

[LarBrd33]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him. Based on his interview comments a couple months ago, I'd guess he leaves for a contender.

[gpap]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him.

Which is why, you would think, DA would be doing his best to acquire 1-2 players to convince Rondo to stick around, long-term.

[knuckleballer]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him. Based on his interview comments a couple months ago, I'd guess he leaves for a contender.

The Knicks will also have a lot of cap space next summer.

[LooseCannon]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him. Based on his interview comments a couple months ago, I'd guess he leaves for a contender.

I don't think Melo was a lock to stay in New York.  Jim Boeheim thinks he would have left if not for Phil Jackson.  Jackson was not there a year ago.  The Celtics should be looking for a trade because they are worried about Rondo leaving about as much as the Knicks should have been looking for a Carmelo Anthony trade last season.

[Fafnir]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him. Based on his interview comments a couple months ago, I'd guess he leaves for a contender.

I don't think Melo was a lock to stay in New York.  Jim Boeheim thinks he would have left if not for Phil Jackson.  Jackson was not there a year ago.  The Celtics should be looking for a trade because they are worried about Rondo leaving about as much as the Knicks should have been looking for a Carmelo Anthony trade last season.

Which is to say they should seriously consider it, but they shouldn't be dead set on it. This isn't a Kevin Love situation where he's 100% gone if you don't move him.

[snively]

I think the chances of Rondo leaving Boston (so long as Ainge is willing to give a reasonable contract) aren't going to be significantly greater than the chances of Carmelo Anthony leaving New York this summer (which were non-zero, but not enough to justify trying to trade Melo for whatever you can get back).

Melo is a New York guy.  That's where he's always wanted to play.  His wife wants him there.  They are a borderline playoff team who just brought in arguably one of the greatest basketball minds of all time to run the team.

I think there's a much greater chance of rondo leaving boston.  It's a bad team.  He's surrounded by kids.  His coach is coming off a rookie campaign where he lead them to a bottom 5 record.  The team has consistently been open to trading him. 

If rondo reaches free agency, I don't think we will be the front runner to sign him. Based on his interview comments a couple months ago, I'd guess he leaves for a contender.

We certainly don't have the hometown draw with Rondo, but we didn't with Pierce either.  Rondo will be dealing with the same ownership/brass that drafted him, kept him out of the Big 3 deals, won a championship with him, and resigned him.  Of course they also tried to trade him for CP3 and maybe others, but there's some brand loyalty and respect built in there that other teams won't have.

And NY's position was worse than Boston's will be in 2015.  Sure they had Phil, but they also had the untradeable Amare and Bargnani deep-sixing the upcoming season before it's started and no extra draft picks to trade. 

Boston will have the chance to add somebody to Rondo right away in 2015 (as opposed to making him sacrifice another year of his prime like Melo is doing) while retaining/obtaining a good supporting cast.

 

[D.o.s.]

Have to agree with the assessment on this page -- this is much closer to a Carmelo situation than a Kevin Love ordeal.

[snively]

Some possibilities
* Dallas - star players haven't been willing to bet long term future on an aging Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk is too old. So I think this is least likely one.
* Houston - Dwight + Harden. Terrific talent but does that fit Rondo's personality? Taking backseat to two others. Glory hunter. Seems like the easy option.
* Indiana - with the cap increasing, Indy might be able to free up enough cash to get Rondo. A big three of Hibbert, Paul George and Rajon Rondo would be a heck of a trio. True team.
* New York - Phil Jackson building title contender in NYC + Carmelo Anthony.

New York and Indiana look the two most likely options to me if Rondo were to leave Boston.

I think New York is going to be shopping for big men to pair with Anthony and stick with Calderon at the 1.  That's what the Chandler move indicated to me: that they were going to move away from Chandler in 2015 and so they used him to shore up the 1 position so they could focus their big money on the excellent 2015 FA center crop.

Indiana would have to move a lot of pieces. I don't think a 35 year old West is going to opt out of near $13 mil, plus they have Hill on that $8 mil deal, and Miles and Mahinmi.  That's near $30 mil tacked on to George and Hibbert.  Great fit on paper though.

Houston would need a big increase in the cap to offer Rondo a max without having to ditch Ariza.  If they get that increase, they'd be very serious competition. I don't think Rondo has much of problem taking a backseat to those two.

I think Dallas' prospects depend a lot on how they fare this year. If they're contenders, I can see them plucking Rondo.