Moving Rondo for pennies on the dollar is just not a smart move.
Pennies on the Dollar? Where did you get this idea? No one is suggesting and certainly we can trust that DA wouldn't trade him just to dump him. Trades will be explored though.
We are now 7-4 in games without him this year. Think the Clipps would be 7-4 without CP or the Nets without Williams? Rondo is not indispensable. I think we could get good value back for him and trades should be explored.
The tone of this whole thread is that Rondo "needs" to be traded because he got ejected from Game 1.
If you think that another team is going to give you full value for Rondo when you are forcing a trade because you don't like his emotional composition, you are out of your mind. Why would a team trade dollar-for-dollar when you are dealing from weakness?
Look at what Utah and Denver did with Deron and Melo. Those were must trades. Had to happen. Did they get full value for them? I think most people would argue that Denver didn't get one player anywhere close to Melo's market value. They got some nice complementary players and a borderline future All-Star in Gallinari. No one that sums up to Melo, a top-5 NBA All-Pro. Utah got Favors and some picks...I am not the biggest Deron Williams fan but at the time he was the 2nd best PG in the league, so we'll see how that works out.
I think Orlando lucked out a bit by getting Dwight to stay for another year. At least now they can pretend like they don't have to trade him, and they can explore best options available. If they traded him at the deadline this year no doubt they would have gotten below market value for him.
Same thing was happening with Rondo this year. Gasol for Rondo? Ridiculous. Rondo must return a bonafide NBA all-star, or a couple lottery talents. He is a top-3 PG right now, in his prime. I put him ahead of D-Will at the moment. So to put that in context, we would need to get something like Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, and multiple 1st rounders in retrun for Rondo. I don't see anyone giving that up.