No, Rajon Rondo Is Not Going To Be Traded


On Tuesday, Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose released their Celtics preview which was literally titled 'The Celtics Will Trade Rajon Rondo.' In the preview, well, they theorized that the Boston Celtics would trade Rajon Rondo

ROSE: Once you trade Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett... the year before you lost Ray Allen and you lose Doc Rivers. The next obvious domino is Rajon Rondo

SIMMONS: If you're going to blow it up, don't leave like one room in the blown up house. Be like "Naw, I'm going to keep the living room." No. You blow up the house.


I'm here to talk to the small army of Rondo fans who are just about ready to jump: Relax.

Like he's known to do: Bill Simmons makes an analogy that is overtly simplistic. Rajon Rondo isn't a living room in a house you're blowing up: He's a young, all star point guard, on one of the league's best contracts, who has proven to be capable of being difference maker in the playoffs, on a team that won't be very good this year.

But you don't trade a proven commodity just to trade him. And Bill Simmons knows this. And even better? Danny Ainge knows this. From Simmons' own podcast this summer on the eerily similar topic of Paul Pierce in 2006:

SIMMONS: You see teams give up on young players so often, right? And you were really almost ready to trade him that summer. Now if you get Chris Paul back, maybe it's not a disaster.

AINGE: But that's a big factor! Paul Pierce for CHRIS PAUL. It wasn't like we were just trying to trade him....

SIMMONS: You think about how many teams have given up on a young player when they've gotten to that point,

and then...

SIMMONS: When you look at trading Rondo going forward, you seem like you subscribe to the philosophy that 'if I have a blue chipper, I'm not trading the blue chipper unless I get another blue chipper.

AINGE: Ya, he's a special player.

By Simmons' own admission; you don't trade a young asset just to trade him. You don't trade Paul Pierce unless you're getting a Chris Paul like talent in return. You don't trade a top tier player unless you're getting a good return. And Celtics fans should take solace in knowing that Danny Ainge has not only been in this position before, but handled it correctly.

So while I fully expect Ainge to listen to offers, a look across the league reveals that there's not a real good fit for Rondo: Contending teams already have elite point guards (or elite ball handlers who don't need traditional point guards), and most other will continue to work to bottom out and hold onto their own top assets.

The only trade that's likely to surface is a team that's looking to make a splash: But even those teams are only likely to give up a couple B to C level prospects for Rondo, which is a trade (thankfully) Danny Ainge seems to have next to no interest in.