If Rajon Rondo does make it all the way to opening night still in New England, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and all the rest of Boston better be sucking up to him because dude will be pissed off. Not long after rumors began that Danny Ainge was dragging Rondo’s name into talks with rival GMs, Chris Paul came up. It turned out the league’s reigning best PG (at least in the public’s eye) was the guy Boston wanted, and if it cost them Rondo so be it. New Orleans wasn’t jumping at the deal, and now Rondo has his own suitor: the Indiana Pacers.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting “for the past few days, Pacers officials – and third-party surrogates – have been making calls and gathering information and insight into Rondo’s reputation as a teammate and leader, sources said.”
How the Pacers became involved in their bid for Rondo still isn’t clear. The Celtics were making calls to find a third party to throw into the Rondo/Paul swap; New Orleans refused to give away Paul without another team stepping in and offering them more. Indiana definitely has the young assets to please anyone so it makes sense Boston probably called to help to secure Paul. But they definitely weren’t anticipating the Pacers’ interest in Rondo.
Now the Celtics gameplan could be this: make the deal with Indiana, get young resources and then turn around and swing another deal for CP.
The Pacers are predictably nervous about adding Rondo: He’s a big name with a big head (thanks to winning so much at such a young age), and with a young coach in Frank Vogel, and no Hall of Famers to keep him in line, who would check Rondo’s ego? Still, if you put him on a team like Indiana, that’s a dangerous squad. Athletic. Young. Explosive. That would make for a very interesting lineup, depending on who they’d have to give up.
Would Indiana be a good fit for Rondo? Is Boston stupid for trying to trade him away?
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