Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks agree on Rajon Rondo trade

Did they get Lebron James? Anthony Davis? Kevin Durant? Oh wait, they got RONDO. Most of the people here haven't even seen Rondo play the past 2 seasons yet everyone's acting like he's MJ.

Dallas is 0-5 or whatever against legit competition. Is Rondo so amazing he turns that entire record from 0-5 to 5-0? WTF. I'm gonna pull up this thread a couple of months from now and we'll see who is right.

BTW Dallas vs Houston now turns from a close game to a decisive win for the Rox assuming the Rox don't important players injured. You guys don't really understand, but the only way Rondo can be effective is if you have potent catch and shoot players, and they had that before with KG (deadly mid range J), Pierce (all around offensive dynamo) and Allen (one of the best shooters in history). On the other hand, who on the current Dallas roster really benefits by having Rondo massage the ball? Parsons, Monta and Dirk are decent shooters, but all of them want to be able to iso players, in fact that is the reason why Dallas's offense has been off the charts because you can't double team anyone. Now, you can actually sag off Rondo and concentrate on everyone else, just pack the paint, double team Dirk and let Rondo beat you by shooting 3's. Worst comes to worst, hack a Rondo and see if his 33% ft shooting actually results in a win.

 

They didn't what?

OK, I have now taken my homer goggles off, and I continue to have the same opinion as before.

You should make more meaningful responses.

 

So it's a wash

And I trust pbev can put the clamps on rondo and not the other way around

 

There seems to be a lot off butt hurt Rockets fans in here talking about Rondo like he is a scrub. I didn't want him here because he wasn't a good fit. Well he seems like a perfect fit in Dallas. Parsons, Ellis and Dirk are going to be getting great looks now and that's scary.

 

So first game doesn't seem that promising, against a tired Spurs team Dallas needed a career game from Monta to win, and Rondo only had 6 pts on 3-11 shooting. Its too soon to make any predictions, but unless Monta or Dirk or Parsons blow up every night thanks to Rondo I don't think he's worth what they gave up.

 

No one says he is a scrub. And I don't think it's necessarily butt hurt reaction, although I can only speak for myself.

Rondo's style and skill set doesn't fit a lot of teams. Teams that would benefit from Rondo:
1. Have a lot of good shooters but need someone to generate their offense.
2. Need to shore up their perimeter defense.

Dallas does not fit #1. They don't need someone to generate offense for them. In fact, there's a chance that throwing Rondo into their top-ranked offense might make it less effective.

They fit #2 but they also gave up a valuable backup center. So it is not clear whether it is a net gain, because perimeter defense is not as important as big man defense.

And we are not even talking about Rondo's injury concern.

 

Why do they need to be 5-0 against legit competition to be a contender? Is there any team in the NBA that has had that kind of success? Seems like an absurd standard to set.

 

With rondo the last two games, the mavs have their lowest scoring first halves all season; 42 last game and 38 in this one.

 

Rondo takes the ball out of parson and Ellis a lot, hopefully he's not a good fit.

 

Not to be sour so early but we already m ow Monte likes the ball in his hands to create, rondo defeats that.

 

Honestly, if mavs win the title I win a really big bet. But a western conference scout really put this trade into perspective for me by saying that "Dallas are still the underdogs at PG against every western conference playoff team except Houston (if you assume OKC replaces pelicans)"
Might not be 100% true, but damn close. Theyre no more of a contender than the other 7 teams.

 

Self ownage

 

I'm sure Charlise will figure out how to mesh his players, but I knew this would happen. Dallas was dangerous because they had shooters all around. With Rondo, opponents can double off him since he is no threat from the perimeter.

 

The Mavs ORtg is 109.7 ranked #1; Drtg is 102.4 ranked #24.

Let's see how they fare at the end of the season. We'll know what the impact of this trade is.

 

Maybe now we know why Morey didn't trade for Rondo.

 

I think your overvaluing what they gave up. To me they gave up a couple of role players and a couple weak draft picks. Anyway we'll see what happens but I the trade was a good gamble.

 

Wright was like the Cadillac of role players - and they have nothing behind htem.

He basically gave you all-star level center production for 18 min a night.

Now they have Charlie Villanueva (who isn't playing badly thus far but over a tiny sample size.)

 

BS report talking a little about the Rondo trade

Spoiler

BS: On paper standpoint, it would be incredible if Dallas ended up with him. Summer of 2013, they carved out space for Deron and Dwight. All they have is Dirk. Kidd spurns them for the Knicks. In less than 18 months, they add Monta, Tyson, Rondo, Parsons and then Smith. If I told you all those names in July, you'd think I was insane, right?

ZL: Yeah, they haven't given up much to get all those guys. With or without Smith, they have gotten talent at low cost. Smith would be interesting there. Without Wright, they're playing Villanueva and Dirk together. That won't sustain. They're trying Greg Smith, they're trying small ball. They hate Dirk at center. Jermaine O'Neal, he teased like he was going to tweet his decision. He hasn't said what he's gonna do. Everyone thinks Dallas but if not, they need another big body.

BS: The Rondo trade, people wondering how he'd fit with Monta and was it worth it. In a vacuum, Rondo was worth it. Their PGs were terrible but they decimated their bench. There's Charlie V., and now you're thinking, maybe why this wasn't great for them. To lose Crowder and Wright, you can kinda feel it. There is pressure to add people. It's easy to get role guys in February but still an issue right now.

ZL: They need another big body. Wright was underrated and really good. They're playing marginal rotational guys and guys out of position. They need another guy. Crowder, we'll see if he amounts to something in the NBA. Rondo has hurt their spacing. You've seen it in the first two games. It will take awhile to sort that out. Talent wise, no brainer to get a guy of Rondo's talent. I'm not a big Rondo guy, a bit overrated. He's world better than their other PGs. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

BS: You wrote about the trade after and presented both sides. You saw both sides. It was fresh, it was new. It feels like you're leaning against it. Fair?

ZL: Gun to my head if I was Dallas, I'd do it. They weren't going to win the West with the defense they were playing. He gives them a little size, length, tenacity, overrated as a defender but he's decent compared to the guy he's replacing. If they want to win a championship this year, this is helpful. People remember Rondo from 3 years ago against Miami and think that's who Dallas is getting. We haven't seen that player and the assumption is he'll just flip the switch. He's in a contract year, he should be contract year Rondo and he wasn't that good on either end of the floor. He's a weird, stylistic piece that halfway doesn't fit the way they've been playing offense. He's a weird piece, can't shoot, mucks up your spacing and you gotta mix him in there. Ultimately you bet on Carlisle but it's a risky deal.

BS: Contract year Rondo, I feel like a huge part was he didn't want to get hurt. Always got the sense, you can tell when a guy cares if he gets hurt vs. doesn't. The way he was playing, it was if he wanted to get through the season without getting hurt, which is a terrible way for him to play. Part of what made him great, he was occasionally reckless. He would barrel into the lane. He wasn't doing that. Never took charges. Wasn't as bad as Kobe on D but definitely below average. Wasn't trying hard.

ZL: Defense is funny. There's like a two year lag time when someone's defensive ability changes one way or the other and folks realize it. People think he's still an all-defense kind of player and he hasn't been for 2-3 years at least.

BS: Back to Dallas, you can see it the last two games, some stuff he does is unique to him. The way he floats around, sneak behind guys, the way he helps, gambles & steals too much. He can guard bigger guys,...

ZL: That's huge for Dallas. When you have so many little guys, you need some of those little guys to guard 2's. His rebounding too. On offense, they would like more offensive rebounds. If you watch Beverley rebound for the Rockets, if you can get 3-4 sneaky PG offensive rebounds and kick out for 3s, those are game changers.

BS: Right. You talk about spacing, I agree that will take time. Rondo, and he had this skill too during the peak of KG, PP, RA, when he doesn't have the ball, people think he'll stand there and you can lay off, that's not what he does. He's sneaky. He moves around like a cat. He's always up to stuff when locked in. That's what Dallas is getting. In Boston he would give up the ball and stand there. They had to trade him. In practice, when you have your guy who is the best and "leader" and isn't going hard, that puts a coach who's trying to get through to young players in a bad spot. Dallas had the only good offer. Danny made them think they were bidding against someone. No other good offers right?

ZL: Lakers would have offered Nash, Houston's pick, and a 2nd rounder. There aren't that many teams, he's an expiring contract, wants a max deal, FA to be and plays a loaded position. Start ranking the PGs. I'm not sure he's a top 10-12 point guard anymore. The ACL tear was horrible on every level for Boston and horrible for trade reasons. It wiped out the season when they would have gotten something for him.

BS: ... Both of us heard maybe Dallas wasn't as unanimous with this trade. I've heard various things with Carlisle: he was against it, lukewarm on it, in on it but I tend to believe the lukewarm-not as into it version. If you're Carlisle, you knew what you had, now you bring Rondo is, Monta has a headcase history but has been great for Dallas. Now you have 2 of those guys, then you talk about Josh Smith. I'm losing whatever hair I have left.

ZL: I've heard divided things. I don't know the exact truth. I will say this, the more I cover the NBA and talk to people, you can't underestimate the importance of training camp and the security of having a guy in camp to learn your system and teammates and the difficulty of incorporating a guy in the middle of the season. Teams don't like to do that. Throw in he's a unique player, I wouldn't be surprised if the coaching staff thought man, we're rolling, now we have to re-invent the wheel a little bit.

BS: The other thing is familiarity. When you're playing with people you don't know, there's hesitation and it takes awhile. Dallas' best advantage the first 6 weeks was they knew how to play together and the sum of the parts wasn't as good as the actual whole. Now, it's parts again.

 

I think it's too early to judge...obviously...but I don't think it helps Dallas to take the ball out of Ellis' hands. And Rondo is absolutely worthless on offense when he doesn't have the ball in his hands.