Rondo sounds excited over Stevens hire


ESPN Boston
While Rondo hasn't spoken publicly, all indications are he's just as intrigued to meet Stevens and wants to spearhead Boston's rebuild. Ainge phoned Rondo after the team hired Stevens and told him the news. Rondo's response?

"[Rondo said,] 'Oh, Is that the guy that coached Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack?'" recounted Ainge. " I go, 'Yeah, yeah, that's the guy.' [Rondo said,] 'Oh, yeah. That sounds great.'"

Stevens reached out to all of the players on Boston's roster on Thursday and had conversations with most of them, including Rondo.

"It sounded like their talk went really well and they want to get together and see if they can develop a relationship before the season starts," said Ainge, who maintains he has no desire to move his star point guard this offseason.

Good news all around. There's no bigger fan of Rajon Rondo than Brad Stevens and Rondo appears to approve of the hire and have respect for his new coach. It's not impossible to believe that Rondo and Stevens might actually mesh better than Rondo did with Doc. There are no guarantees that Rondo will last the full season with the Celtics, but the odds have increased in recent days.