Viewing the Rajon Rondo Trade From the Perspective of a Celtics Fan

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On Thursday night, the Boston Celtics completed a trade with the Dallas Mavericks that involved sending beloved Celtics star Rajon Rondo to Dallas. In return for Rondo and rookie Dwight Powell, the Celtics acquired Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright and Jae Crowder. They also received a conditional first round pick and a second round pick. Boston will also receive a $12.9 million trade exception.

I can only assume that the point of this trade was to unload Rondo before he left this offseason, while gathering more picks and a trade exception to help rebuild the team. As a Celtics fan myself, I feel that the deal was lopsided. The Mavericks only needed to give up some role players and a first round pick to get one of the best floor generals in the NBA. None of the players that the Mavs traded away were starting caliber and although the trade exception is nice, even the first round pick is likely to be later on in the draft.

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I don’t disagree with trading Rondo, he didn’t fit on the team anymore. He is made to play on a competing team, which the Celtics are not. His departure will open up the door for Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley and Jared Sullinger, among others, to start figuring out how this team is going to progress. Mavs fans should be thankful for this gift from the Celtics.

They are getting the best passer in the NBA, someone who can feed the ball to the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Monta Ellis, Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler. His career assist average is 8.5 and it would be better than that if you exclude his seasons before he was a starter.

He’s had three seasons where he’s averaged over 11 assists. He will fit right in on this Mavericks team that doesn’t need him to score, but only dish it to their star scorers. You can bet the Mavs players are pumped about this. Meanwhile, the Celtics season figures to begin trending in a downwards direction.

On the positive side of things, they do have lots to look forward to in terms of rebuilding. It’s easy to judge this trade right now, but who knows, the first round pick could turn out to be the NBA’s next big thing. We’ll have to wait to see how this trade turns out in the long run.