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Boston Celtics: Reviewing The Successful Rajon Rondo Trade

By ggrammer

Apr 2, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Rajon Rondo (9) watches his team take on the Dallas Mavericks during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Rockets defeated the Mavericks 108-101. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 2, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Rajon Rondo (9) watches his team take on the Dallas Mavericks during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Rockets defeated the Mavericks 108-101. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Former Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo is now a player without a team.

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The Dallas Mavericks declared on Wednesday that Rondo would be out indefinitely with a back injury. But everyone knows that Rondo is not injured. As the Mavericks faced a 2-0 deficit to the Houston Rockets, they have chosen to kick Rondo off their team in the middle of the playoffs.

I have never seen this happen before. Sure, there have been many players who teams have shown the door. Stephon Marbury’s last days with the Knicks were a bizarre scene of webcams and eating Vaseline. The Detroit Pistons dumped $27 million to get Josh Smith off their team in December. But those incidents did not happen in the middle of a playoff series.

Now, Rondo will head home and figure out what new team he will join next season. His dreams of earning a maximum contract in free agency are as dead as Dallas’s hopes of winning a championship this year. And as Rondo’s reputation transforms from “star” to “malcontent,” Celtics fans should praise Danny Ainge for getting the best out of a bad situation by trading him.

Let us start by reviewing the trade. On Dec. 19, Boston traded Rondo to Dallas for Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson and draft picks. The draft picks were a first-rounder from Dallas which is top-seven protected from 2016 to 2020 and some second rounders. Boston then traded Wright to the Phoenix Suns for a first round pick belonging to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Next, they traded Nelson to the Denver Nuggets for Nate Robinson and waived Robinson.

Boston was initially criticized for what they got for Rondo. The Boston Globe declared that “The Celtics didn’t get enough.” Affiliate website Boston.com asked “Did the Celtics Really Receive Anything of Value in Rondo Trade?”

But as the season progressed, it is the Celtics who improved without Rondo and the Mavericks who got worse with him. Dallas’s small defensive improvement was nowhere near enough to make up for how Rondo worsened their once league-leading offense.

Meanwhile, the Celtics massively improved when they replaced the ball-dominant passing guard Rondo with the ball-dominant scoring guard Isaiah Thomas.

And it is clear that the departure of Rondo and the arrival of the new players has been a key factor for Boston’s turnaround. Jae Crowder alone has been a better player than Rondo this season. Crowder in Boston scores more points on fewer shots, has a better PER, true shooting percentage, and Win Shares, and plays better defense compared to Rondo in Dallas.

Crowder has been the only Celtic in these playoffs who has a prayer of slowing down LeBron James. In Game 3, Crowder dropped 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting as well as seven rebounds and four assists.

And while Crowder is a confident teammate who declared recently that none of the opposing Cavaliers are intimidating, Rondo has had chemistry issues long before his Game 2 meltdown against the Rockets. Celtics fans should remember how Rondo could be moody and difficult to coach.

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    • As one Celtics insider noted to ESPN, Rondo “always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, even if he isn’t.”

    But perhaps none of that is as important as the fact that Boston now knows what it is doing. The Celtics at the beginning of this season were certainly a team looking to rebuild. But as long as Rondo was on the team, Boston was stuck in limbo, unsure about whether to commit to Rondo or go in a different direction.

    By trading Rondo, Boston is now a young, dynamic team that could have up to three additional first-round picks in the 2016 NBA Draft. They certainly do not have the talent to compete with the top NBA teams, as their 3-0 hole to Cleveland proves. But both Dallas and Boston will likely be out in the first round – and Boston has the much brighter NBA future.

    The Dallas Mavericks traded for a star who awkwardly fit with the rest of their team and hoped that talent would win out. The Celtics picked up young talent and draft picks, and went on a terrific run and snuck into the NBA playoffs. Rondo contributed a great deal to the Celtics and had some spectacular playoff moments.

    But a general manager must know when to let go, and Danny Ainge did a masterful job as Rondo now crash-lands into NBA free agency.

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