Rondo Trade Rumors & Ideas (update pg 8)

[Valid]

Top takeaways from all this drama:

1. Woj, Sean Deveney and to a lesser extent Sam Amick are the only national guys I trust when it comes to speculation about the Cs. Deveney has been writing articles since last summer about how Rondo wasn't getting traded, that the Cs wanted to build with him, etc. He basically laughed off the Sacramento rumor when it came out and wondered why something shot down 2 months ago suddenly had legs. In the midst of all the Houston/Boston hype, Woj is like "I haven't heard anything about Rondo" and then Amick's classic "HOU and BOS haven't even talked". The rest of the dudes out there, talking Spears, Stein, Broussard, they got played this deadline.

2. Who else got played? Those half-assed insiders at Clutchcity. There's no doubting they've had good info in the past and I believe they're probably close to a player or an agent, but you know what, once you start putting up inside info on a site year after year and your source gets wind that you're putting it out there you just open yourself up to getting mouthpieced by that same source for ulterior reasons and that's what happened here.

3. Speaking of Clutchcity, the human waste facility of Internet message boards. 10 minutes reading a thread there is tantamount to hitting yourself with a hammer. 98% gif-spouting numbnuts with only 1 or 2 people who know what the f they're even talking about. in other words, the perfect fanbase to appreciate a fake superstar like Dwight Howard.

Usually Stein and Spears are pretty reliable, too.

[Valid]

Is there anything to be made of this?

@BaxterHolmes: Rondo declined to talk to reporters today.

Doubt it. Just sounds like Rondo being Rondo to me. He probably just doesn't want to talk about all of the recent trade rumors. Can't say I blame him.

[sully00]

Top takeaways from all this drama:

1. Woj, Sean Deveney and to a lesser extent Sam Amick are the only national guys I trust when it comes to speculation about the Cs. Deveney has been writing articles since last summer about how Rondo wasn't getting traded, that the Cs wanted to build with him, etc. He basically laughed off the Sacramento rumor when it came out and wondered why something shot down 2 months ago suddenly had legs. In the midst of all the Houston/Boston hype, Woj is like "I haven't heard anything about Rondo" and then Amick's classic "HOU and BOS haven't even talked". The rest of the dudes out there, talking Spears, Stein, Broussard, they got played this deadline.

2. Who else got played? Those half-assed insiders at Clutchcity. There's no doubting they've had good info in the past and I believe they're probably close to a player or an agent, but you know what, once you start putting up inside info on a site year after year and your source gets wind that you're putting it out there you just open yourself up to getting mouthpieced by that same source for ulterior reasons and that's what happened here.

3. Speaking of Clutchcity, the human waste facility of Internet message boards. 10 minutes reading a thread there is tantamount to hitting yourself with a hammer. 98% gif-spouting numbnuts with only 1 or 2 people who know what the f they're even talking about. in other words, the perfect fanbase to appreciate a fake superstar like Dwight Howard.

I can't speak to the Clutchcity thing I didn't read their stuff but the idea that HOU wasn't interested in trading for Rondo is crazy.

Ainge didn't trade Rondo and may have never engaged in real discussions on Rondo but that doesn't mean that teams didn't call all day making offers. The belief was that Ainge was just waiting for the right offer. There was a price tag and it was confirmed multiple ways. For their to be a price tag there has to be a negotiation and exchange of proposals. At least the "What would it take to get you to consider it?"

Ainge had his nose in on every trade discussion in the league and he should that is his job.

[red96]

At the end of the day, getting that 3rd top 25 player in Rondo for the spare parts they had to offer would have been a steal for Houston, and if most of their homer fans don't get that, that's on them.

Meh,

Plenty of more opportunities to pick up top 25 players over the next year and a half. Rockets real weakness is defensive rebounding and need to improve 3pt and ft shooting right now. Rondo doesn't really help in that area, plus probably not enough time to gel for the playoffs anyway.

[ryaningf]

Top takeaways from all this drama:

1. Woj, Sean Deveney and to a lesser extent Sam Amick are the only national guys I trust when it comes to speculation about the Cs. Deveney has been writing articles since last summer about how Rondo wasn't getting traded, that the Cs wanted to build with him, etc. He basically laughed off the Sacramento rumor when it came out and wondered why something shot down 2 months ago suddenly had legs. In the midst of all the Houston/Boston hype, Woj is like "I haven't heard anything about Rondo" and then Amick's classic "HOU and BOS haven't even talked". The rest of the dudes out there, talking Spears, Stein, Broussard, they got played this deadline.

2. Who else got played? Those half-assed insiders at Clutchcity. There's no doubting they've had good info in the past and I believe they're probably close to a player or an agent, but you know what, once you start putting up inside info on a site year after year and your source gets wind that you're putting it out there you just open yourself up to getting mouthpieced by that same source for ulterior reasons and that's what happened here.

3. Speaking of Clutchcity, the human waste facility of Internet message boards. 10 minutes reading a thread there is tantamount to hitting yourself with a hammer. 98% gif-spouting numbnuts with only 1 or 2 people who know what the f they're even talking about. in other words, the perfect fanbase to appreciate a fake superstar like Dwight Howard.

I can't speak to the Clutchcity thing I didn't read their stuff but the idea that HOU wasn't interested in trading for Rondo is crazy.

Nobody said it was crazy, but it was a longshot and clearly wishful thinking. There's a huge different between "interest" and "discussion" and the insiders conflated the two and likely were unwittingly prompted to do so by their sources.

Ainge didn't trade Rondo and may have never engaged in real discussions on Rondo but that doesn't mean that teams didn't call all day making offers. The belief was that Ainge was just waiting for the right offer. There was a price tag and it was confirmed multiple ways. For their to be a price tag there has to be a negotiation and exchange of proposals. At least the "What would it take to get you to consider it?"

Ainge had his nose in on every trade discussion in the league and he should that is his job.

Yeah, you get no disagreement from me, we've both watched Ainge operated for 10 years now and we know how he goes about his business. But the three guys who understood that were Woj, Deveney and Amick. The rest either are too stupid or too concerned with page hits to present the reality of the situation. I suppose it's generous to say they got played, more than likely their were in on the play too. But the lesson is pretty simple: there are like 3 guys you can trust in the media who won't jerk you around.

As for the rest of what you're saying, I'm not certain the price tag was ever established, nor am I certain Ainge had a price in mind. As I said in another reply to you, Ainge's process is to constantly gauge value and he's currently at a fork in the road so instead of choosing wisely he just engaged the process and took his que from how the market answered. And the answer was: you value Rondo higher than we do. Which means he's now getting pushed in a certain direction which involves putting winning players around Rondo. It also means he knows how valued Rondo is around the league and that should help him come to an agreement on an extension.

Maybe his preference all along was to build with Rondo (personally that's my hope) but we have enough evidence already that he'll set aside his preferences if the price is right. But it's a huge jump to take that stance and extrapolate trade discussions that never took place.

[sully00]

Maybe his preference all along was to build with Rondo (personally that's my hope) but we have enough evidence already that he'll set aside his preferences if the price is right. But it's a huge jump to take that stance and extrapolate trade discussions that never took place.

But I think Ainge plays this card all the time. The "We talked but I wasn't serious." That doesn't mean the other side wasn't serious. I remember when Ainge was on the other side and he wanted somebody else's player, I am sure he hoped the conversation was real when he was offering Ricky Davis for a disgruntled Ron Artest.

But at this point the only concern to me is why did all of these GM's think he had to move Rondo? If he had no intention of moving Rondo why did he have a price? It was stated multiple times that Ainge was asking for a young star and two unprotected first round picks including a lottery pick. This price may have simply come from why he was saying no.

[soxfan2003]

In complete defense of cyberx or whatever the heck his name on clutchcity, he only talked about discussions. Never promised a deal at all.

And the Rockets do have one of the best contracts in the NBA right now in Parsons so it would be understandable if they didn't want to let him go. From a Celtics perspective, I do think Parsons, Sullinger, Asik and Asik made some sense as a gamble IF the Celtics had lets say the same exact asset base/coach and where the NY Knicks. Why? Literally may have been able to convince Lebron to sign with the Celtics as crazy as that sounds. And Lebron is smart enough to know that leading NY to a championship as the clear #1 by a mile would have done even more for his legacy. Celtics basically instantly become better then 2010 Cavs minus Lebron with a lot of picks to blow past them and bring in strong replacements for a player like Wallace etc. Traditional pure PG clearly not needed with Lebron so it would have been a good fit.

Discussions with Houston may have been completely false and cyberx could be somewhat of a phony but since its in both teams interests to downplay possible trade discussions, we will never know the truth. I mean its not like Woj is listening in on a the trade discussions himself. Sometimes I'm sure he has to do favors for teams to maintain his contacts as well.

All we know is that Ainge has set a price tag high enough for Rondo that a team that isn't convinced he has a very good shot or re-signing , they certainly aren't willing to deal. It's logical Ainge doesn't have a cheap price on Rondo, otherwise he would already be gone.

The upcoming draft is the last real good shot to trade Rondo before he is probably a FA. More possibilities may open up including some unexpected ones. Imagine if OKC loses and Westbrook shooting a bit too much is to blame. 3 way trade possibility may open up there if Durant is ok with playing with Rondo instead of Westbrook.

If Houston has PG problems in the playoffs, they may be more willing to pay the required price. Lakers and Knicks possibilities as well. Lakers probably only become a possibility if the draft doesn't go there way and MN won't trade Love to them.

Making a trade to get much better is still a strong possibility this summer but who knows if a team like MN will deal. .

[soxfan2003]

In complete defense of cyberx or whatever the heck his name on clutchcity, he only talked about discussions. Never promised a deal at all.

And the Rockets do have one of the best contracts in the NBA right now in Parsons so it would be understandable if they didn't want to let him go. From a Celtics perspective, I do think Parsons, Sullinger and Asik made some sense as a gamble IF the Celtics had lets say the same exact asset base/coach and where the NY Knicks. Why? Literally may have been able to convince Lebron to sign with the Celtics as crazy as that sounds. And Lebron is smart enough to know that leading NY to a championship as the clear #1 by a mile would have done even more for his legacy. Celtics basically instantly become better then 2010 Cavs minus Lebron with a lot of picks to blow past them and bring in strong replacements for a player like Wallace etc. Traditional pure PG clearly not needed with Lebron so it would have been a good fit.

Discussions with Houston may have been completely false and cyberx could be somewhat of a phony but since its in both teams interests to downplay possible trade discussions, we will never know the truth. I mean its not like Woj is listening in on a the trade discussions himself. Sometimes I'm sure he has to do favors for teams to maintain his contacts as well.

All we know is that Ainge has set a price tag high enough for Rondo that a team that isn't convinced he has a very good shot or re-signing , they certainly aren't willing to deal. It's logical Ainge doesn't have a cheap price on Rondo, otherwise he would already be gone.

The upcoming draft is the last real good shot to trade Rondo before he is probably a FA. More possibilities may open up including some unexpected ones. Imagine if OKC loses and Westbrook shooting a bit too much is to blame. 3 way trade possibility may open up there if Durant is ok with playing with Rondo instead of Westbrook.

If Houston has PG problems in the playoffs, they may be more willing to pay the required price. Lakers and Knicks possibilities as well. Lakers probably only become a possibility if the draft doesn't go there way and MN won't trade Love to them.

Making a trade to get much better is still a strong possibility this summer but who knows if a team like MN will deal.

[ryaningf]

But at this point the only concern to me is why did all of these GM's think he had to move Rondo? If he had no intention of moving Rondo why did he have a price? It was stated multiple times that Ainge was asking for a young star and two unprotected first round picks including a lottery pick. This price may have simply come from why he was saying no.

My guess was that he was simply gauging value and you can only do that if you give the other side the impression that there's a possibility of a deal. And when they make their offer and he's like "no thanks" and they're like "why" and he gives them a price they never had the ability to meet, kind of like when you ask the hot girl in class for a date and she tells you no I prefer older men. This is probably why there are several teams around the league that won't even talk to Danny anymore they got jerked around and then got wise to the way he operates.

LBF had some insight into this earlier as well, saying something along the lines that teams were convinced that if Danny can't rebuild the team quickly that he'll have sell off Rondo for .50 and I think a lot of the so-called interest were teams lowballing Danny under the impression that since nobody will trade him a superstar (there's not even one on the market as far as we know) to pair with Rondo then obviously the only way forward is selling off Rondo and leveling the entire team. Danny doesn't share that notion though, and no matter how many times he says it it doesn't seem to catch on. Again, after 10 years of his somewhat disingenuous act I'm sure most people have a problem believing Danny when he says anything so what you have is interest in Rondo based on nothing but distrust of Danny.

[tfmiii]

Philly is now $11.7 million under the salary floor after the Hawes trade. Just guessing but this seems like a possible landing spot for Humphries IMO. Celtics get back some assets. Trade doesn't have to match salary wise.

As I mentioned in another thread, I don't think Ainge wants to lose Humphries salary. It is valuable on draft day and just to expire. Unless he got real assets, I don't see it happening and what does Philly really have of worth that they would be willing to give up?

Why not? A 12 million dollar TPE would be a lot more valuable than Hump at this point unless they plan on resigning him which BOS may he is productive player.

you let him expire then you can sign him for less and use pierce tpe without blowing a hole in the salary cap

[sam_I_am]

Ainge himself said he ignores what media writes because lately it is mostly outright fabrication. He said he wasn't trading Rondo. There are 54 pages of drivel on this thread with Ainge being called a liar ..... but at end of the day it is just as Ainge said. No trade.

How about un-sticking this useless thread? Or better yet lock it.

[Captain_Caveman]

At the end of the day, getting that 3rd top 25 player in Rondo for the spare parts they had to offer would have been a steal for Houston, and if most of their homer fans don't get that, that's on them.

Meh,

Plenty of more opportunities to pick up top 25 players over the next year and a half. Rockets real weakness is defensive rebounding right now. Rondo doesn't really help in that area, plus probably not enough time to gel for the playoffs anyway.

Rondo is a pretty good rebounder for his position. 10 triple-doubles in the playoffs alone.

[Captain_Caveman]

Top takeaways from all this drama:

1. Woj, Sean Deveney and to a lesser extent Sam Amick are the only national guys I trust when it comes to speculation about the Cs. Deveney has been writing articles since last summer about how Rondo wasn't getting traded, that the Cs wanted to build with him, etc. He basically laughed off the Sacramento rumor when it came out and wondered why something shot down 2 months ago suddenly had legs. In the midst of all the Houston/Boston hype, Woj is like "I haven't heard anything about Rondo" and then Amick's classic "HOU and BOS haven't even talked". The rest of the dudes out there, talking Spears, Stein, Broussard, they got played this deadline.

2. Who else got played? Those half-assed insiders at Clutchcity. There's no doubting they've had good info in the past and I believe they're probably close to a player or an agent, but you know what, once you start putting up inside info on a site year after year and your source gets wind that you're putting it out there you just open yourself up to getting mouthpieced by that same source for ulterior reasons and that's what happened here.

3. Speaking of Clutchcity, the human waste facility of Internet message boards. 10 minutes reading a thread there is tantamount to hitting yourself with a hammer. 98% gif-spouting numbnuts with only 1 or 2 people who know what the f they're even talking about. in other words, the perfect fanbase to appreciate a fake superstar like Dwight Howard.

Don't agree that this was just smoke. Just look at Ainge's comments that, "Ultimately, we just value Rondo more than other teams do." Also Bulpett's tweet about possible fallback options if the big stuff falls through.

To me, there is very little doubt that the teams spoke and that Rondo is quite available for the right price. But Rondo a sensitive dude, and Ainge must tread lightly there if nothing ends up happening. Just look at what happened with Ray. Ended up taking less money just to leave he was so pissed about nearly being dealt, lol. Likewise, you have to figure that a good chunk of this was Houston setting up a possible run at him in free agency. Morey can give him a song and dance about how it was actually his idea to draft him in Boston, and how he's been trying to trade for him ever since going to Houston just before that draft and all that. Consider Ainge's other quote about how he wasn't sure how much of the deadline talks were actually negotiation.

At the end of the day, Houston risks nothing and only gains from making a show of support for Rondo like that, even if through backchannels or "insider" leaks. Couldn't agree with you more about clutchfans being a high school girl emo gif fest full of homer clowns who have never touched a ball in their life that wasn't attached to them or a close relative, but a couple of the insiders are on point, whether it comes from teams or just agents. Obviously not as on point as the ones here, but no hate to them or the few posters there who don't have their heads surgically implanted in their asses.

The hate on Rondo's attitude from most of them still makes me sick, though, especially from fans of a team that only won titles in large part because they had fearless goons like Mario Elie and Vernon Maxwell on their side back in the day.

[15th overall]

I don't know if Morey would gain much by basically admitting he doesn't think Rondo is good enough to warrant parting with a glorified role player in Chandler effin Parsons. If I'm Rondo and I see Morey give up the farm for Harden and jump through hoops to woo Dwight... only to nickel and dime Boston when it comes to acquiring MY services, I'd take that as a bit of a slight. Not saying he'd write them off completely but that it would drain a bit of the enthusiasm out of becoming a Rocket... that and having to actually live in Houston.

Either way, this thread being unstickied is probably the best thing to come out of today and that blows. Only 27ish games left of this isht.. At least we have the hope generated from Vescey's tweets about Love to get us through the season.