NBA Rumors: Boston Celtics To Trade Rajon Rondo To The New York Knicks?

There’s one person who won’t allow the Rajon Rondo and Boston Celtics rumors die: none other than Grantland’s Bill Simmons. Yesterday he fired up the rumor mill again with nothing more than a wild guess of which uniform Rondo will be sporting by the end of the season. During a Celtics season preview, Simmons predicts that the Celtics will trade Rondo to the New York Knicks.

"“I think Rondo gets traded to the Knicks in the next four months…I actually like the thought of Rondo and Carmelo together. I think he would get him the ball in all of the right spots.”"

I’m not sure if this is a move for Simmons and Spike Lee to become buddies or perhaps retribution for all of the public distaste he’s expressed towards Knicks owner James Dolan. However, Simmons continued with a trade proposal that he feels is good enough to get the deal done.

The Celtics would trade Rajon Rondo and Gerald Wallace in exchange for Amar’e Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert, a 2018 first round pick, and the right to swap first round picks with the Knicks once in next five years.

"“I love Rondo. I want him to be on a good team. I don’t want him to be on a rebuilding team.”"

Simmons is underestimating the bargaining power of the Celtics, even if they truly want to trade Rondo. Stoudemire’s enormous expiring contract and what’s left of Shumpert isn’t nearly enough for Boston. Rebuilding teams are rarely in a cap stranglehold and although the Celtics are a paying out a bit over $78 million in salary this season, they’re on target to spend close to $30 million less next year. With the NBA’s new TV deal providing an uptick in revenue, dumping another $20 million that would be fiscally pleasing isn’t totally necessary. That makes Wallace’s $10.1 million next year a non-issue. It’s not going to have the cap ramifications that it does right now, and in the interim doesn’t place the Celtics in a position eager to accept trades for Rondo that don’t push their franchise in a positive direction.

The Celtics are content with Avery Bradley, and seem confident in Marcus Thornton. Although Shumpert would add some defensive grit, they’re already receiving that in Bradley who secured NBA Defensive Second Team honors last season and will most likely be just as bothersome on on defense again. Shumpert’s coming off a very subpar third season, one in which he tallied a career-low 6.7 points per game while shooting a poor 37.8 percent. Not exactly eye-candy to Celtics head coach Brad Stevens and general manager Danny Ainge.

It’s still unclear as to whether Rondo will be traded. If he can suffer through one miserable season with the Celtics, who knows what the future holds. Boston might not be the most attractive city to play in, but perhaps being in the Eastern Conference will serve as enough appeal to some of the league’s superstars. Seeds five through are pretty much wide open, and will most likely remain that way for the next two or three years unless there’s another major shift in the NBA power balance. Who’s to say a superstar can’t be convinced to play for the Celtics in the interest of being back into the playoff mix? It could be an attractive situation for all of those guys who worked hard in the extremely competitive Western Conference all year just to be shut out come mid-April.

That just goes to say…there’s hope in Boston, and the majority of it doesn’t lie in what the Celtics can get in return for Rondo.