Celtics Telling Teams Rajon Rondo Won't Be Traded

[satch]

Wondering if hack-a-rondo late in a playoff game would make teams cautious to do a trade.

[indeedproceed]

Oddly this makes me feel like a trade is more likely.  Danny playing his cards close to the chest and all that.

My inference: Wait til the trade deadline, play chicken with me if you want. Rondo is going to probably resign with whomever has his bird rights. Meet my price or I will just keep him. He's playing really well right now, bee-tee-dubs.

[LarBrd33]

I'm sure Ainge is always listening to offers.  Maybe the team improves, Rondo stays, we land a star through free agency or trade, and we all live happily ever after.  I still think it's more likely we see Rondo traded or leave via free agency. 

[dasani]

But if he doesn't get traded. I fear the delusions some may have on here. If that doesn't happen, then the sky will officially come down on them. 

[crimson_stallion]

Why would they trade him?

Even with the ridiculous numbers he's putting up right now (10 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 46% FG, 40% 3PT) his value is still low right now because:

1) He's still only 10 games returned from both an ACL injury and a broken hand
2) He's in the last year of his contract, and so any trade risks being a 1 year rental

This means Danny is likely to get offers that are far below what Rondo is worth both to him, and to Boston.  If Danny is getting offers along the lines of "McLemore + 1st rounder + Filler" then I'm absolutely glad he's refusing them.  Rondo is an elite player regardless of what people thing, and no GM worth anything in this league would sell short on a guy who is a 27 year old NBA champion, multi-time all star, multi-time all defensive teamer and one of the active NBA leaders in triple doubles.  You don't give up guys like that for scrap.

[BballTim]

Wondering if hack-a-rondo late in a playoff game would make teams cautious to do a trade.

  Have you ever seen that though?

[Vermont Green]

I find two items in the original article interesting

Rival executives have told Bleacher Report that Danny Ainge has been firm that the Boston Celtics will not trade Rajon Rondo ahead of the trade deadline.

"This is going to be his best year of his career, I think," Ainge said, ..... But there is uncertainty for this upcoming offseason."

The first could be interpreted a couple of ways but when I first read it, I took it to mean he was going to wait until the trade deadline to trade him, not that he wasn't going to trade him.  Why else would the "ahead of the trade deadline" caveat be added?  You could simply say "we will not trade Rondo".

In the second, while talking about Rondo specifically, Ainge is directly quoted saying "there is uncertainty for this upcoming offseason" which would be a pretty good reason to trade him at the deadline if you are "uncertain" you can resign him.

I think at this point, it probably is a good strategy to wait until very close to the deadline to get the best possible trade, if you are going to trade him.  And Ainge should be uncertain about whether he can resign Rondo.  This all makes perfect sense to me.

[kozlodoev]

Wondering if hack-a-rondo late in a playoff game would make teams cautious to do a trade.

  Have you ever seen that though?

No, because the last playoffs we were in, we had Pierce and Garnett to run offence through.

[BballTim]

Wondering if hack-a-rondo late in a playoff game would make teams cautious to do a trade.

  Have you ever seen that though?

No, because the last playoffs we were in, we had Pierce and Garnett to run offence through.

  The last playoffs we were in we had historically bad offense against a mediocre defensive team running the ball through PP and KG. In the playoffs the year before, when Rondo played, we ran the ball through him on the vast majority of our possessions, including most of the late game possessions.

[fairweatherfan]

Oddly this makes me feel like a trade is more likely.  Danny playing his cards close to the chest and all that.

My inference: Wait til the trade deadline, play chicken with me if you want. Rondo is going to probably resign with whomever has his bird rights. Meet my price or I will just keep him. He's playing really well right now, bee-tee-dubs.

Yeah, pretty much.  I think it's fair to conclude Danny obviously doesn't want to firesale Rondo (which is probably what a lot of inquirers were hoping for) so he's daring teams to make an offer strong enough to "change his mind".  And if they don't, I think we're also happy to keep him here long-term.

[Fafnir]

The reason we don't see hack-a-Rondo is that hack a player strategies are bad ones when the player can hit 60%+ of their free throws. Unless you're giving up some ridiculous number of points or are completely desparate its a poor strategy.

Even with Pierce/KG I don't think our offenses ever verged on that unstoppable level that would dictate intentional fouling of Rondo on the ball. When the game was that desparate for the opponent we'd just have Rondo inbound the ball.

[Fafnir]

Oddly this makes me feel like a trade is more likely.  Danny playing his cards close to the chest and all that.

My inference: Wait til the trade deadline, play chicken with me if you want. Rondo is going to probably resign with whomever has his bird rights. Meet my price or I will just keep him. He's playing really well right now, bee-tee-dubs.

Yeah, pretty much.  I think it's fair to conclude Danny obviously doesn't want to firesale Rondo (which is probably what a lot of inquirers were hoping for) so he's daring teams to make an offer strong enough to "change his mind".  And if they don't, I think we're also happy to keep him here long-term.

I don't think Ainge has recieved any offers he likes for Rondo in probably over a year. His price was reportedly a high lottery pick, salary relief, some young talent, and an additional pick of some sort.

Ainge isn't the type to lower his price, especially when I think he'd really have to sell ownership on a Rondo move at this point. A low level prospect and a mid value pick would be tough to bring to Wyc.

[BballTim]

The reason we don't see hack-a-Rondo is that hack a player strategies are bad ones when the player can hit 60%+ of their free throws. Unless you're giving up some ridiculous number of points or are completely desparate its a poor strategy.

  Yes, we've been hearing concerns about hack-a-Rondo for years, in fact some people even think it does happen, but this is exactly why it doesn't.

[Fafnir]

The reason we don't see hack-a-Rondo is that hack a player strategies are bad ones when the player can hit 60%+ of their free throws. Unless you're giving up some ridiculous number of points or are completely desparate its a poor strategy.

  Yes, we've been hearing concerns about hack-a-Rondo for years, in fact some people even think it does happen, but this is exactly why it doesn't.

I think its happened once or twice, but only during regular season games. The Bucks apparently tried it 08-09, Rondo hit 5-7 so that didn't work for them.

I believe someone did it in the past two years too, though not sure on that.

[BballTim]

I find two items in the original article interesting

Rival executives have told Bleacher Report that Danny Ainge has been firm that the Boston Celtics will not trade Rajon Rondo ahead of the trade deadline.

"This is going to be his best year of his career, I think," Ainge said, ..... But there is uncertainty for this upcoming offseason."

The first could be interpreted a couple of ways but when I first read it, I took it to mean he was going to wait until the trade deadline to trade him, not that he wasn't going to trade him.  Why else would the "ahead of the trade deadline" caveat be added?  You could simply say "we will not trade Rondo".

In the second, while talking about Rondo specifically, Ainge is directly quoted saying "there is uncertainty for this upcoming offseason" which would be a pretty good reason to trade him at the deadline if you are "uncertain" you can resign him.

I think at this point, it probably is a good strategy to wait until very close to the deadline to get the best possible trade, if you are going to trade him.  And Ainge should be uncertain about whether he can resign Rondo.  This all makes perfect sense to me.

 Not to single you out, but this is why it's somewhat useless to try and get any meaning from Danny's words. He's never going to say "we're going to sign Rondo no matter what", so people will place a great deal of emphasis on that chance that we might not bring him back. It's like the way people try and read meaning into "Rondo isn't untouchable" when no player on Danny's roster is ever untouchable.