Disdain, and the trade that sent Rondo to Dallas

Forgive me for starting with a little inside-baseball talk. Whenever I'm writing seriously here, or whatever you call I do here at Celticslife, I'm motivated by one main thing; to make sure I don't sound like the type of person that calls into sports radio, screaming into the receiver of my phone because I disagree with the host.

So when trades or transactions happen that I don't totally disagree with I make sure to give myself a pause to let my mind get around it. That'll often lead to me reading the analysis of people who are a whole lot more intelligent than I, until I can get a better understanding of, if nothing else, the logic behind something I initially disagreed with.

And, I think, that process makes sense. I'm a sales guy who blogs on the side. Who am I to come out and call someone like Danny Ainge, someone who is widely regarded as one of the most intelligent minds in basketball, an idiot because I disagree with a basketball decision he probably put a lot of thought in?

It's now been about 16 hours since the Rajon Rondo trade has become official. I've been through my usual 'due diligence' process about three times now. And I'm sorry, I can't help myself; I'm afraid it's time to unearth Matt from North Quincy.

I hate so much about the things this trade chooses to be. I think I follow the logic behind it, and I absolutely detest it. I'm seething with anger, and am struggling to connect my thoughts (though that often happens even when anger isn't involved). The more time I spend contemplating the trade, the more I come back to the same conclusion; Danny Ainge got taken out to the woodshed by the Dallas Mavericks.

You'll hear plenty about Brandan Wright over the next few days. Here are three undeniable truths; at the end of the season he becomes an unrestricted free agent, he's never averaged more than 19 minutes a game over a season, and there's a reason the Dallas Mavericks brought in a 32 year old center with 13 years experience to start over him. The idea that at 27 years old with 6 years of experience in the league could get considerably better is foolish.

The worst part? He's probably the most exciting piece of this trade. The first round pick Dallas gives us is heavily protected, and will likely fall somewhere in the mid to late 20's in 2016 (without Rondo, they currently have the eight best winning percentage in the league). And there's Jameer Nelson. Who has the distinct disadvantage of being Jameer Nelson.

People will tell you that the Celtics needed to make a move now in order to be able to re-trade the assets acquired. That somehow, in 3 months time Jameer Nelson, Jae Crowder and Brandon Wright (and the acquired 12.9 million dollar exception we picked up) are going to become exponentially more valuable than they are currently. If it's not clear that my last sentence was filled with sarcasm, read it again, this time keep in mind that I'm laying it on pretty thick.

Yes, this Dallas offer is what the current market dictates. But time can be a peculiar thing sometimes, and 'the market' can turn on a freaking dime in the NBA. We've seen this time and time again.

This past summer, Celtics fans were convinced that Kevin Love would be joining the team, because no other team could offer anything nearly as attractive. Then Lebron happened, and all of a sudden Cleveland can offer two guys who were selected #1 in the draft.

I'd also be a fool to not point out that 10 months ago the Sacramento Kings offered us Ben McLemore, Isiah Thomas and two first round picks for the services of Rajon Rondo. If a few months of subpar basketball could decrease Rondo's value so significantly, couldn't you just as easily argue that a few months of good basketball could increase his value dramatically*?

We won't know now. Our polarizing, occasionally electric, playoff tested, triple double machine is gone. In his absence, a beautifully wrapped turd sandwich packaged by the Dallas Mavericks.



*To be clear, I'm not suggesting that we'd be able to get an offer similar to the Sacrmaneto one again. Just saying I think we could get more value than whatever this Dallas trade offers us.