Trading Rondo would be insane. The only reason you trade him is if privately he is saying there is no way he wants to stay in Boston.
Yeh, I don't get it. I guess the only reason a guy improves is so his trade value increases.
How about we keep him and reap the benefits?
I think it all depends on his price. I personally have a feeling that the C's will have to actually overpay him and give him close to the Max to keep him. He is a very cocky kid, and is very sure of his abilities, and I think if the C's don't offer him big time money this summer, he is going to want to be a restricted FA next summer, when there will be a lot of teams with cap space, who may miss out on their #1 target, and then decide to overpay Rondo, so the C's won't want to match it.
So if you can get good value for him now (and IMO, the #2 pick and Conley is probably about $1.10 on the dollar, since Conley is a very good prospect himself, and the #2 is valuable...and if its Gay instead of Conley its like $1.50 to the dollar), you should jump at it.
No one (OK, maybe not no one, but most of us) are not saying to have a firesale, and give him away for garbage, but we just think it may be worth looking at what kind of value he has, because he is likely close to his peak in value right now, before he gets a new contract, and coming off a good playoff run.
Everyone remembers that Rondo was easily the best player for us during the playoffs, right? Easily. He carried us in the first round when nobody else stepped up. He shot terribly against the Magic, but even in that series he averaged 14 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists... I'm one of the people who doesn't think that will continue... but if the kid actually turned a corner, he's possibly the best player the team has (with KG's future on shakey ground, with Ray continuing to get older and with Pierce seemingly missing a step). If we traded Rondo... we'd have to get something very VERY substantial in return. We've been grooming this kid to be the leader of Celtic Pride for the next decade. He's had every possible mentor you could want for a future leader (Ainge, Doc, Cassell as point guards.. KG as a leader mentor, Ray as a professional... and Pierce as well). He's helped lead us to a championship. This team might be his next year with the way these playoffs went. It might be going from "The Big 3" to "Rondo and the players formally known as the "Big 3"..." Keeping him and Perk (who obviously did an amazing job at limiting Dwight) should be major major priorities. If we have to pay Rondo "Max" money... we might want to just do it. What's "Max money"? 14 mil a year? His elderly sidekicks will be making 20 mil.
He finished the playoffs averaging 17.4 points, 10 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 2.5 steals which was good enough to be statistically the 7th best player in the playoffs. The second best player for Boston was... Kendrick Perkins. Pierce a close 3rd. Maybe Rondo's trade value is at a high... but it almost makes more sense to be trading Pierce, Ray or KG right now.
Right, and the C's lost in the second round.
And I agree that it would make sense to trade Ray right now (Pierce and KG I don't think have nearly as much value elsewhere as here, due to their contracts), but it all depends on what you can get back.
Listen, I would be ecstatic if the C's could keep Rondo, and sign him to a reasonable deal (say, 4 years, $40 million). I just think the market may be shaping up in Rondo's favor, and because of that, they may need to at least look at their other options, because as good as Rondo has been, he still has a MAJOR flaw, which IMO played a major role in the C's losing the second round series. And I think players with major flaws should not be making close to max money.
