“Problem is, he can’t shoot it at all…I don’t think he’s going to be a great shooter”-Jay Bilas
These words were spoken seconds after the Celtics drafted Rajon Rondo with the 21st pick of the 2006 draft (technically the Suns drafted him but the deal was in place already). They were prophetic words and ultimately it was shooting that became his undoing in Boston. For all the great things he did here and all the stats he tallied, some eye-popping stats, he just could never figure out how to consistently and confidently knock down a jump shot or a free throw.
I’m a huge Rajon Rondo fan, I hope he does well with the Mavs and I hope I get to see “playoff” Rondo again. It was time for him to move on though, and Danny Ainge did what he had to do. It’s not as emotional as when Paul Pierce was traded in the summer of 2013 and really not even as emotional as when Antoine Walker was traded way back in 2004.
Part of that lack of emotion is the fact that I’m older now and that I have seen those other guys get traded. In Boston it would have been a bigger deal two years ago but once Pierce was dealt we all knew that no one was safe. Rondo and the Celtics were simply two entities going in different directions.
At 28 years old Rondo isn’t a kid in the NBA anymore. He’s a veteran who is actually the same age now that Paul Pierce was when the Celtics were tanking for a draft pick in the years before the arrival of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. If you remember, the Celtics tried to move Pierce in 2005 for the draft pick that became Chris Paul as well as the expiring contract of Nick Van Exel, so it’s not like this isn’t a road they’ve looked down before.
Understandably most Celtic fans were upset about the return in the Rondo trade but if you really looked at it you knew they weren’t going to get a great return. Rondo is 28 years old, has six months left on his current contract, is looking for a max extension, and quite frankly hasn’t been the same player since tearing his ACL two years ago.
If you take the name off the player, how much would you want the Celtics to give up for a player that’s averaging 8.3 points, 10.8 assists, 7.5 rebounds, and shooting 40/25/33 as percentages from the field/three point line/free throw line? The raw stats look good but the percentages are terrible. Other than the assists, that looks like a stat line that Ben Wallace would have put up and he proved to not be worth a max contract.
Getting three players and two draft picks, as well as a trade exception in return isn’t the worst trade in the world. I’m sure Danny took the best offer he had and it also probably didn’t hurt that Rick Carlisle was a former Celtic himself. As a fan you have to look at it from the perspective of cashing out on a guy who was probably going to leave at the end of the year anyway.
Putting that aside though, because pundits will argue about who got the better deal and whether the Celtics should have held out for more, I’m more interested in what place Rajon Rondo holds in Celtics history.
I knew that Rondo was putting up some impressive stats but a tweet from Sean Grande this morning really put it in perspective. In the last fifty years Rondo is 18th on the Celtics points list, 1st in assists, 2nd in steals, and 5th in rebounds. In the history of the TD Garden he’s 4th in scoring, 1st in assists, 2nd in steals, and 5th in rebounding.
Think of all the guys that have come through the Celtics in the last fifty years, Havlicek, Cowens, Jojo, Bird, McHale, Parish, Maxwell, Archibald, Walton, Walker, Pierce, Garnett, Allen, and even the end of the Russell era guys. Through all that Rajon is in the top five in three major categories.
Even without stats, he won a championship as the starting point guard in only his second year in the league, punctuating that with a 21 point, 8 assist, 7 rebound, 6 steal, and only 1 turnover effort in the clinching game. If not for KG’s knee injury Rondo might have been the starting point guard on three straight championship teams.
His real breakout moment though was in the first round of the 2009 playoffs, when the Celtics were stretched to the limit by a very feisty Chicago Bulls team led by Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng. In that series Rajon averaged a triple double without KG in the lineup and helped the Celtics eliminate the Bulls in seven games.
So many Rondo moments stand out. The game where he dove between Jason Williams legs for a loose ball. The pass he threw behind the back for a Ray Allen corner three (you know the one I mean). His 42-point effort against Miami in the 2012 playoffs. Every time he’d make that cuff move with the ball, faking the behind the back pass and then going to the rim. The games where, before they even started, you knew Rondo was going to be superhuman.
As much as I didn’t think Rondo was worth a max contract and as much as I applaud Danny Ainge for getting what he could for him, I’m going to miss Rajon quite a bit. The feeling you always got before a big game that you knew, without a doubt, that Rajon Rondo was going to show up and play big time. Any game on national television or that caused a season to hang in the balance was a game where he was going to elevate his game to a level that only the top three or four players in the NBA can get to.
He was the last piece to go from the best team I’ve ever watched. The last link to the 2008 championship team, that was still in a uniform. He outlasted Posey, Powe, Brown, Cassell, Allen, House, Baby, Perk, Allen, Garnett, Rivers, and even Pierce, but in the end they’re all gone. Now we watch them come back with the Nets, Wizards, Grizzlies, Clippers, and Mavs, cheering them for the memories and the good times.
Good luck in Dallas, it was a hell of a ride in Boston.
By Josh Viola @joshviola19
