His knees worry me. Never easy to come back from an ACL. His locker room troubles worry me. How will he fit being the 3rd guy behind H and H. However an upgrade is an upgrade, you sort out other things later. I'd do Rondo and Bass for non guaranteed contracts, Terry, NOP 1st and future 2nd at most if possible. Don't know how the salaries work. We get to keep TJ as back up 4 and DMO as back up 5. Rondo / Bev / Canaan Harden / Trey Daniels / Johnson Ariza / Pap / Cisco Bass / TJ / Adrien Howard / DMO / Dorsey D League: Capella
Only concern with Rondo is his health. They could use a bit of his attitude and toughness. As for his play, not too many people are better, even with a limited offensive skill set. I'm unrealistically hopeful Nick Johnson will be an overachiever, I love the way he defends and attacks. Is it too early to label me a JOF?
I would trade for Rondo under the right circumstances. Those being: 1. He is willing to extend his contract for 4 season starting at $12 million OR less. This is extremely unlikely. Rondo is looking for big money. He's trying to entice it out of Ainge right now with all this hype about wanting to be a Celtic long-term, etc. What Rondo ultimately wants is big money and control. He gets that be squeezing Ainge for a 5-year max deal and a no-trade clause. (I don't think Ainge will give him that much power. Ainge may give him a 5-year deal but it's going to come without a no-trade clause so Ainge can move him. And I don't think Rondo will accept that. Because Rondo does not want to wind up in basketball Siberia playing for a crappy team.) A 4-year max deal is likely waiting for Rondo in LA and POSSIBLY NY (although I'm not convinced PJax wants him). Any way you look at it.....odds of Rondo agreeing to an extension at $12 million or less is basically nil. 2. I'd trade for Rondo if either DMo or Terrence sprouts big time in their development (if they are still here) OR if we also acquired a young up and coming PF/C on a rookie deal that is skilled enough to shoot the 3 and is big enough to bang defensively and rebound at a high rate. Somebody like Cody Zeller (pipe dream at this point) or Enes Kanter or Vucevic. If we could acquire (or know that Terrence or DMo will be) the long-term answer to the 4-spot, that being a guy in the 7-foot range that can shoot from distance effectively and bang and board effectively....then acquiring Rondo and paying him the max isn't as big a deal. 3. If we can acquire Rondo for cheap and get him signed to an extension or a new contract WITHOUT a no-trade clause. Thereby turning him into a trade piece. (Don't see Rondo allowing this to happen either.) *So basically the only way I want to acquire Rondo is if we know we have the long-term solution to our team at the 4-spot on the roster already or we at least maintain a lion's share of trade assets after acquiring Rondo to trade for our future 4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rondo's cap hold this summer if he doesn't sign an extension is over $18 million. So if you trade for him, you're basically locking in your big 3 and filling in around those 3 guys with exceptions, minimum salaries, and rookie deals. Rondo leaves no flexibility to play free agency in 2015 or in 2016 if you retain him unless he signs for a lower contract number which does not seem likely at this point. In contrast to Rondo, Rubio's cap hold this summer is $11.65 million. Rubio is also restricted which means contract offers will likely be slow and low if they do come in. And Rubio's restricted free agent tag COULD be removed and his cap hold number drop to $8.855 million. OR Rubio could sign his qualifying offer at $6.18 million and thereby yield up even more cap space to a team under the cap for them to be able to chase free agents with both in 2015 and also in 2016 as his cap hold in 2016 would be $9.27 million. If this were the case in 2016 and we had still not been able to acquire our long-term solution at the 4 in 2015 then we could possibly chase down Kevin Durant in 2016. None of that is possible if we acquire Rondo now and sign him for a max or close to max deal. Also, Rubio's max salary if he does get a max offer in restricted free agency is several million dollars lower than Rondo's max eligible salary. When you consider those factors...and then you look at each player's temperment in the locker room and the structure of our team....you'd have to choose Rubio every time over Rondo at this stage of their respective careers if you could acquire either guy for the same package of assets.
Claims he wants to stay a Celtic. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rondo-want-stay-celtic-beyond-season-215906840--nba.html
That is a ploy to get a 5-year deal at max $$$ and a no-trade clause so he controls his destiny and gets his $$$ too. He may take slightly less than his absolute max by signing an extension with a no-trade clause. But make no mistake about it, Rondo is going to control his destiny. He's not going to put himself in a position where he can be traded to Utah or some team he doesn't want to play for. Rondo wants $$$ and control. Watch it play out.
No doubt that would be preferable. If we can get Rondo cheaply before that, DM shouldn't wait. Realistically, most of us including yourself of course know that will be hard to pull off. It will harder to pull off a trade for a star name, like Rondo even though he isn't playing like one.
Rubio is 92 for, 147 against, Rondo is 68 for, 16 against, i'm not sure around here is really accurate
There is a Vocal Pro-Rubio minority. Nothing more to say about that. I would love Rondo, if his intensity becomes a plus and not a negative. If he can motivate Harden to play defense and Howard to run the pick-and-roll, heck ya, I want him. If he rubs Howard the same way Kobe did, causing a season of Drama and Trade demands, I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot long pole. Problem is that there is no way to tell which way he will be in the locker room until it blows up in our faces.
I did an experiment on polls a while back, kinda similar to these last 2 Plow has done. The point of these 2 polls on Rubio and Rondo is simple. If you are pro-Rondo....there's no reason you shouldn't be pro-Rubio. Rubio is younger, will come in much cheaper and may be acquirable for less assets. Yet, we see the 2 polls going in opposite directions. Like Rondo is so much superior at shooting a basketball than Rubio is that he justifies taking up at least an extra $3-5 million of cap space per year (at least) and putting up with all his antics off the court??? These polls prove one thing...how irrational the majority of members here are.
