Rajon Rondo Rumors Ridiculous

Rajon Rondo Rumors Ridiculous
Common Sense Suggests: He's Not Going Anywhere

Yahoo! Contributor Network
By Craig Pisani | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 18 hours ago

COMMENTARY | A horrific chain of events avalanching upon faithful Boston Celtic fans since January continues to boil their green blood.

Apparently relinquishing the five-year run of Atlantic Conference titles, an early first-round playoff exit to division rival New York Knicks, and trading Doc Rivers,Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce for Danny Ainge's vision of the future, isn't enough of a kick while they're down. Nope. They have to deal with the earth-shattering rumors involving potential trade scenarios for All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo.

Cheer up, Celtics fans; he isn't going anywhere. Here's why:
Youth
Rondo, the only holdover from the 2008 Celtics championship team, is now a veteran leader. He brings championship experience to a wonderful group of emerging, young talent at every position. Take a look around. All of a sudden the Celtics aren't "old" anymore. Assuming the Celtics are able to trade the newly acquired Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries before the season starts, the starting lineup projects to be Rondo, 27, Avery Bradley, 22, Jared Sullinger, 21, Jeff Green, 26, and rookie Kelly Olynyk, 22. Heck, even newly hired Brad Stevens is the youngest head coach in the NBA at age 36.
If Chris Wilcox remains unsigned, that leaves Keith Bogans as the only player on the active roster over the age of 30. Rondo, with an already established relationship with his teammates, can bring out their best during the transition process into a championship-caliber team once again. With two years left on his contract, at a bargain price, and nine first-round draft picks already collected over the next five years, it doesn't pay to trade him. Stevens seems genuinely excited to coach him, and Ainge repeatedly confirms he isn't shopping him -- that he will be a cornerstone in the rebuilding process. A backcourt combo of Rondo and second team All-Defensive player Avery Bradley should be enticing enough to keep around for a while.
Break Down the Words
This offseason, Rondo hypothetically has been traded to 20 NBA teams. One week he's heading to Dallas in exchange for Dirk Nowitzki; the next he's packing his bags to join buddy Josh Smith in Detroit. The gentlemen spreading these rumors often attribute an imminent trade due to a poor attitude and inability to co-exist with coaches and teammates. We already know the obvious. He plays with an edge, but he's a triple-double machine and All-Star every year who's so often referred to in these articles as a "floor general."

Based on the allegations, these reporters sound like hypocrites. A general is the highest rank of the military; a great man who leads soldiers into battle. Such a respected term should not be used if one was not a great leader of men. So what is he? A spoiled player like the media tries to make him out to be? Or an NBA champion who leads his team by playing unselfish basketball and excellent defense? Rondo is the latter, where as a player, such as Deron Williams, who can get a coach fired every other year seems to be a better fit for the spoiled role.
Pure at His Position
I understand that fellow guards Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook shoot the ball at a higher percent but Rondo's pass-first mentality makes him a pure point guard. I can throw all kinds of numbers out there and manipulate them to make any player look better than he is. But whatever happened to common sense and believing in what your eyes have seen?

Rondo reminds me of John Stockton (who I consider the best to ever play the position) more than any other player I've seen since he retired. Yes, even Steve Nash. Rondo ranks among the top assist leaders every season (11+ per game 3 years in a row) and has shown he can light up a score board and drop 44 points in a playoff game when necessary. His jumper looked to be a bit more consistent last season before he fell to injury. Unfortunately we can't judge the entire body of work from 2012-2013, and his record chasing double-digit assist streak ended prematurely due to an ejection. But with the two aforementioned names aside, realistically, who should the Celtics consider replacing Rondo with? Before you answer the rhetorical, keep in mind none of the great point guards mentioned in this paragraph ever won a ring.
Bottom Line
When all is said and done, the bottom line becomes simple: Rondo is clutch. His postseason record speaks for itself, getting to at least the second round every year, taking underdog teams further than any analyst, reporter, or Celtics hater thought he could. His per-game averages in the playoffs are 14.5 points, 6 boards, 9.2 assists and 2 steals with a slew of triple-doubles under his belt. I'd plan on seeing him in green for a long time. So rest easy, Celtics fans, the best is yet to come.

--

My Take: I've always thought that Boston's situation was more positive than negative, citing the youth and eventually the possibility to bring in stars or utilize draft picks. If you have the best PG in the NBA, why trade him and end up with an inferior player running the team?

KJ

Obviously Craig Pisani is very young if he writes:

"Rondo reminds me of John Stockton (who I consider the best to ever play the position) ."

No one who saw Bob Cousy play would ever say that, and I wonder how many would prefer having John Stockton at PG over Magic Johnson.

W

Not me

Dboss

Worcester,

Thanks for saving me the trouble of saying that about Stockton.

As far as Magic Johnson, I believe he should be in the running for best basketball player ever.  The fact that he happened to play PG was a function of what the team needed at the time; he could have performed at SG or SF at least as well.  The fact that a huge proportion of his assists came on long passes to Worthy suggests he might have been a gifted quarterback too.  But he wasn't a PG specialist.  He wasn't great in the half-court game, and his basketball mentality wasn't focused mainly on the PG function.  A lot of his PG success was due to his height (and his resulting court vision and ability to outreach opponents) rather than to particularly outstanding PG skills.

My favorite shots were his lefty and righty running hooks from distance. This video shows a righty running hook, but the lefty hook that's shown isn't a running hook and is a lot shorter than what I'm talking about. I have the video of his complete last game in L.A., and he had one of each in that Championship game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMdGcmHPrRI

Sam