You don't trade Rondo unless you get a top ten player back.
Why? Rondo isn't a Top 10 player.
Also the people above defending Rondo's defense, do you watch the game? Rondo is a horrible ball defender and the reason the defense has been playing so well in his absence has been the pairing of Lee and Bradley.
The defense was playing well before Rondo went down. We were 7th in the league in defensive rating when Rondo got injured. That's where we are now.
Since Rondo went down, in regulation (not including the Denver OTs) the Celtics opponent average is 91 PPG. For the season, they are at 96. The numbers don't lie, the D has been better.
Nope. The defense has surrendered ~91 ppg consistently since the beginning of January. Well before Rondo left.
Another key measure is that our opponent FG% has been a super-stingy <42% pretty continuously during that same stretch (which would lead the league if it were our overall season rating).
The improvement in the defense has far more to do with:
a) Bradley's return
b) The new guys finally learning how to play Doc's system and
c) Doc no longer experimenting with some really bad defensive lineups like he did early in the season.