After rumors ramped up last night the Celtics were in “serious” discussions to deal Rajon Rondo, today reports said he was “open” to re-signing with either the Mavs or Rockets, since he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer. Then, some speculated a deal was going to happen because the Mavericks Twitter account started following him. At the time, we thought it was hooey, but sources tell Yahoo a deal has been struck sending Rondo to Dallas — along with Dwight Powell — in exchange for Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson a 2015 first-round draft pick and a future second round draft pick.
Here’s Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski with the latest:
The Boston Celtics traded All-Star Rajon Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks as part of a deal involving four other players and two draft picks, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Rondo will go to Dallas with Dwight Powell in exchange for Mavericks Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson, a 2015 first-round draft pick and a future second-rounder, sources told Yahoo.
The Houston Rockets dropped out of the Rondo trade talks Thursday evening, clearing the way for the Celtics to strike a deal with the Mavericks, sources told Yahoo.
With the trade, the Mavs will trot out a starting lineup of Rondo, Monta Ellis, Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons, and Tyson Chandler. That’s not four-fifths of a possible 2011 All-Star team, its Dallas’ starting lineup.
Then again, star-driven squads say nothing about all the various parts fitting together. While the trade does shake up the Western Conference, we’re not sure Rondo’s dribble-heavy game is perfectly suited for coach Rick Carlisle‘s offense. That’s to say nothing of his atrocious shooting clogging the NBA’s best offense, one predicated on spacing for pick-and-roll actions to then swing the ball to the open shooter.
Currently, Rajon is only averaging 8.3 PPG this season, and shooting 33 percent from the free throw line. Based off those two stats along, we’ve already heard a couple shouting talking heads on ESPN disparage his value in comparison to some of the Western Conference’s elite point guards (i.e. Damian Lillard, Mike Conley, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Goran Dragic et al.). Rondo also has some bad plus/minus numbers during his first quater season in Boston, too, with a net rating of minus 2.4 points per 100 possessions.
Rondo’s free throw shooting is somehow worse than the subpar 40 percent he’s shooting from the field overall, but better than the 25 percent he knocks down from beyond the arc. Still, the former Celtics helmsman leads the league in assists per game (10.8), and he’s a beast on the boards with those huge hands, hops and underrated strength.
We don’t know what to think about the deal because it just happened and we haven’t seen the new Mavs play yet, but we’re definitely setting our DVR to record more Dallas games in the coming weeks.
What this means for the rest of the Western Conference elite is anybody’s guess, but we’d caution all our readers to take all the “expert” analysis with a grain of salt. No matter how much basketball you watch and analyze, and we watch a lot, there’s no telling how disparate parts, the players, will gel together as a team. Will Rondo be the glue the Mavs need to take the next step and win a title? Maybe. Will Mark Cuban rue the day he pulled the trigger on the deal? Maybe. Will Danny Ainge silently sulk if Rondo leads the Mavs to the title? Maybe. Will the Mavs stay around the same, fringe title contenders, while the Celtics continue to haul picks in an achingly slow rebuild? Possibly.
The only thing we know for sure is nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen with Rondo in Dallas; except, Tim MacMahon, Tim Cowlishaw, Eddie Sefko and all the other writers on the Mavs beat are in for an interesting few weeks as they attempt to file anything of note on the intelligent, but easily irritated, Rajon.
(Yahoo)
Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
