The "trade Rajon Rondo" from all angles

The trade Rajon Rondo saga is blowing out of proportions, at least for right now.  We first caught wind of Celtics General Manager offering Rajon for Chris Paul.  Or was it the supposedly the offering of Rajon Rondo to the Oklahoma City Thunder?  Either way, none of this makes a lot of sense right now with the season not officially under way.

Before I get onto the Chris Paul pros and cons, I want to knock off the rumor from Chris Broussard regarding Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green being offered to Oklahoma City Thunder for Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins.  Luckily some of us read the league rules and understand what teams are allowed to do and not do.  Trading restricted free agents within the same year you acquire is not one of them (Jeff Green).  Trading a player back to the same team he was just traded to is another no-no (Kendrick Perkins).  Conclusion to this rumor, sell it, stock will die.  Even Chris tried to kill the hype with this  tweet.

Now that we got that out of the way, we can focus on the real meat and potatoes.  Chris Paul is without a doubt better than Rajon Rondo.  He is better at shooting, passing, rebounding, assists, and leading his team.  Below are the stats for both players, both regular season and postseason.  There is no doubt now that Chris Paul is the better player. 

Celtics Preseason Schedule Released

NECN

Boston will open the preseason at Toronto on Sunday, Dec. 18 (1 p.m.), and close out the shortened preseason schedule against the Raptors on Wednesday, Dec. 21 (7:30 p.m.) at the TD Garden.

Full 66 game regular season schedule will be announced Tuesday night.

Is the NBA Going to Become a 3 Team league?

So as feared (and expected) Chris Paul and Dwight Howard plan on demanding trades to teams they want to go to. Chris Paul's agent has just requested a trade to the Knicks and expect a trade involving Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum to eventually occur. Stars all want to form "super teams." One already is in Miami. Next  'Melo, Amar'e, and Chris Paul started to plan their own super team in New York last Summer. There two-thirds of the way there. And Dwight Howard doesn't want to be left alone in Orlando battling two teams with 6 of the NBA's top 15 players. He wants to join two more top 15 guys in L.A. and have his own threesome with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.

Nice job NBA fixing this whole super team mess. You locked out the NBA for 5 months and all we're hearing now is how the big market teams will get richer. You're going to have a 3 team league. Maybe Dallas can trade for Deron Williams and Kevin Durant and it can be a 4 team league.

I understand stars not wanting to be stuck in lousy situations, but forcing your way onto super teams sucks for NBA fans outside of Miami, L.A. and New York. It almost makes you long for the days when guys left teams with a few all-stars because they wanted the limelight. Now everyone wants to be the Beatles. The NBA could have put a stop to this in the new CBA, but they didn't. So now we have Carmelo 2.0 starting with Chris Paul. The next shoe to drop will be when Dwight Howard announces he will only sign an extension with the Lakers.

Ainge doesn't anticipate trading Rondo

Gary Dzen, Boston Globe:

On the trade rumors that have been floating around the team's starting point guard, Ainge said, "Rondo knows that we love him. He knows that we like him. He's excited to come back and play basketball in my opinion ... I don't anticipate [trading him], no.

"Trade rumors are part of the world we live in. Everybody's been in trade rumors and everybody will. If you're worth your salt you'll be mentioned in a trade somewhere down the line."

Said Rivers, "There's a reason when this thing leaked out that it was all over the news. It's because both players they were talking about were really good. I think he's one of the top point guard in the NBA. I think Rondo has established that."

The team's practice facility opened to players for the first time today so both Doc and Danny addressed the media. Obviously, the Rondo trade was a hot topic. Ainge also said that the team's top priorities were size, and a backup point guard and wing. Ainge said that he's spoken to representatives for both Delonte West and Glen Davis, and acknowledged that he was interested in bringing them back.

Delonte West seeks job security

Delonte West has had one of the most interesting careers in the NBA thus far.  Playing for awful teams (2006 Celtics anyone?) to pairing up in Cleveland during Lebron's best years.  The one thing that Delonte has never been able to achieve is job security.  Always playing for that next contract has kept him hungry, but even with a longer contract, Delonte will still give everything he has.  Julian Benbow has a fantastic piece on Delonte at Boston.com today.   Below are a few quotes from Delonte:

“It’s all about the perception that can be embedded in people’s mind from bad decisions I’ve made,’’ said West.

“I’m a real person,’’ he said. “My goal for the summer was repairing the image.’’

“My biggest thing that I haven’t had since I’ve been in the league really is comfort,’’ he said. “I haven’t had anyone say, ‘We actually believe what you can do.’ ’’

“Because I was pulled over, now I’m a league minimum player?’’ West said. “I’m one of those guys that have to keep proving myself over and over again. That’s been the story of my life, and that’s OK.’’

Delonte also spoke briefly the emotions of playing for the Seattle Supersonics during their last season in Washington state.

“You didn’t know what to expect,’’ he said. “Playing that season, that half a season, just not knowing if we were going to leave or go to a different city. Things were in boxes. There wasn’t that settled feeling.’’

He also spoke about the requirements the Celtics front office had on him this past year with his legal and personal problems.

Michael Redd, Joel Przybilla on Celtics radar

According to Gery Woelfe, the Celtics have interest in both Joel Przybilla and Michael Redd.

Redd's coming off of two ACL tears and is looking to join an eastern conference contender. Chicago, New York and Miami are the other teams interested in Redd. For Pryzbilla, Milwaukee and Portland are listed in the article as the other believed suitors. ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg did some profiles on both of these guys back in July. Check them out here: Michael Redd, Joel Przybilla.