The Celtics held a media briefing today and talked fairly extensively about basically the only topic that is worth focusing on… Rajon Rondo’s future with the team. Here’s a sampling of what was said.
#Celtics president Danny Ainge asked if he still gets trade calls on Rajon Rondo: “No.”
— Scott Souza (@scott_souza) September 23, 2014
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Grousbeck repeated that he “absolutely” wants to keep Rondo. Thinks he wants to stay too. — Jay King (@ByJayKing) September 23, 2014
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Danny Ainge: “We expect Rajon Rondo to be in Boston for the long term. We expect him to have the best year of his career. ” #Celtics
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) September 23, 2014
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Ainge: “I can’t say more emphatically” that he wants Rondo in Boston long term. — Jay King (@ByJayKing) September 23, 2014
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#Celtics president Danny Ainge: you need players w/ cache to attract other stars in #NBA. Rajon Rondo is our player (w/ cache) to get those.
— Scott Souza (@scott_souza) September 23, 2014
Basically, the team really seems to want Rondo back. And they seem to be under the impression that he wants to be back.
The big thing, though, is that no one is calling, according to Ainge. That really makes sense to me because I’ve been saying for a while now that it makes no sense for a team to trade for Rondo right now. There’s no guarantee he’s going to re-sign anywhere, so teams aren’t going to be willing to give up a ton of assets for him. Danny Ainge isn’t going to give him up now for less than fair market value, especially since we haven’t seen him really play comfortable after the knee injury.
So the next step is to wait and see. Pre-season trade just won’t happen. If a good team steps up at the trade deadline and gives up the right mix of assets, then maybe Ainge will listen then. But we’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out. The Celtics still might not want to move Rondo in an effort to use him as a draw for free agent scorers.
Ainge did take a shot at, what I assume, were the Jackie MacMullan-driven rumors:
Ainge on Rondo rumors: “Very credible people have made things up and that even makes it worse.”
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) September 23, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js It’s a pretty pointed shot at the only very credible person to have potentially made things up. I await Jackie Mac’s response. //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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