Report: 'Rondo looks more and more like he'll miss entire pre-season, some regular season games'

When Rajon Rondo had ACL re-construction in mid-February, we knew there was a chance that he would not be ready in time for the season opener. However, both Rondo and the Celtics have been adamant in making sure to not set a timetable for his recovery. Therefore, most Celtics fans have held on to hope that Rondo may in fact be good to go on October 30th.

But according to A. Sherrod Blakely, it's just about time to put those hopes on ice. Although it's important to note that Blakely does not close the door completely.

Shortly after Rondo's injury, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stated that Rondo would be back for the start of the season.

While there hasn't been a delay in his recovery, Rondo's timetable looks more and more like he will miss all of the preseason as well as some regular season games.

Stevens said no timetable has been set for Rondo's return, adding that he had not inquired about Rondo's return in the past couple of weeks.

Personally I'm intrigued about what Blakely knows that we don't. Has he heard from a Celtics source that this is the case? Is he aware what exercises Rondo is currently doing and comparing those to other ACL rehabs and making an educated guess that he won't be ready in six weeks? Or is this just an opinion?

At this point, we don't know that. But I will say, that while on the B.S. report just ten days ago, Celtics President Danny Ainge said that Rondo was "not close" to returning, which I took as an ominous sign. After all, if Rondo is going to be 100% on October 30th, he should be closing in on that right around now.

We should have a much better grasp of where Rondo stands when practice starts in a few weeks. If Rondo is cutting and jumping and doing significant basketball activities — he's getting close. If he's doing light jogging and shooting drills? He's not all that close.

Speaking as someone who has come off of two ACL surgeries I can say this for certain — the last step in the rehab is the hardest part. Actually getting back to the sport where the injury happened and trusting your "new" knee. While Rondo has the benefit of actually being a world class athlete compared to me (my rec league team was titled "The Below Average Athletes"), I can assure you that that part is no different for him. As we saw with Derrick Rose, it's one thing for a doctor to say "you can trust your knee now", it's another thing to actually go out there and start doing the thing that made you suffer the injury in the first place.

So for the next few weeks, we wait. But Blakely is pretty well plugged in, so if he's saying this now..there's a good shot he's on to something.

Not that that's the worst thing in the world. If Rondo comes back on (for example) December 1st but is 100% and looks like the guy we remember..that's a massive win for the Cs. Lose a few more games in November without having to tank, and then see how Rondo does as the alpha dog once he comes back.

Seems like a solid plan to me.

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