Rajon Rondo takes as many as five showers every day. I am not making this up. So it makes perfect sense for him to break his hand falling in the shower. Sort of.
This is not to challenge Rondo’s version of events that led to his latest mishap, which will sideline him for a couple of months. (But admit it: Wasn’t your first reaction something like, “That’s his story?’’) Unless some other evidence surfaces contradicting Rondo’s version, well, it is what it is.
The larger issue, of course, is Rondo’s mindset going forward, not the broken bone in his left hand. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next summer and all indications are that he will do so. He even sounded intrigued by the concept of getting bromanced – “kind of like college again.”
But he also said more than once that it was his intention to stay with the Celtics. He said he was trying to recruit other players (he stopped short of identifying them) to join him in Boston. He said he loves the fans, loves the area, trusts the owner and general manager, enjoys the new coach and that his preference is to stay with the Celtics.
Does that sound like someone who’s itching to leave? Or like someone who you’d want to move at all costs? He wasn’t taking the Jacoby Ellsbury Coyness Route. He said he wants to stay.
Then again, so did Jon Lester, so we’ll see.
I don’t know what is going to happen with Rondo and neither does anyone else. That story line, however, will dominate the Celtics’ season until something does happen for two reasons: Rondo’s future is a dicey and critical story, and the Celtics are likely to slink further into irrelevance once the games start to count.
There will be important dates along the way. Rondo’s first game. The trading deadline in February. And the biggie: July 2015.
Celtics general manager Danny Ainge sat next to Rondo during Monday’s recitations. Neither of their noses appeared to grow as they spoke. Ainge wants Rondo to stay and has been firm in that stance, trading rumors be damned! He even said he fully expects Rondo to seek a maximum contract and that Rondo probably deserves it.
The situation would be dramatically different if Rondo took the Kevin Love approach and said he would not re-sign. Rondo has not done that. In fact, he has done the opposite.
If the player wants to stay and you want the player to stay – again, I’m taking them at their word, maybe mistakenly – then generally these things find a way to get resolved. There’s also the “atmospherics” out there that might militate against any other scenario.
Ainge could decide that Rondo is going to bolt a la Ellsbury and that he must trade him to avoid getting nothing in return. But Rondo would have to approve the deal because the new team would likely balk if Rondo was determined to test free agency.
Add to Rondo’s reputation as being “high-maintenance” – or, as his agent prefers, “complicated” – and you wonder just what the market would be for a talented, testy, stubborn guy seeking a max deal. I can imagine Doc Rivers’ phone exploding from calls asking what it’s like to have Rondo around.
Would Ainge excise Rondo for 50 cents on the dollar just to get rid of him? Sixty cents? Seventy-five cents? That’s all he may be able to get. But if nothing changes in either man’s thinking, then I can’t see Ainge pulling the trigger. (I know they call him Trader Danny so, yes, there’s that.) He has said more than once, “Guys like Rondo are hard to find. Why would I trade him?’’ Makes sense to me.
Rondo, meanwhile, might be interested in exploring free agency but knows going in that he will be sacrificing a ton of money to go elsewhere. In the end, that generally proves to be the deal breaker. Chris Bosh could have gone to Houston and been in instant contention for another ring. He instead returned to Miami, to a lesser team, but for a lot more money and a fifth year on his max contract. Plus, he’s comfortable there.
There are examples of free agents taking less. Dwight Howard left money on the table in Los Angeles. But he was miserable there, the team stunk and the Rockets offered what he had been missing: a chance to win. And he still got a boatload of money anyway.
Rondo could do that. He could decide that as much as he loves Boston, there is no chance to win there in the immediate future. He could rationalize that he could somehow find a way to subsist on $15 million a year as opposed to $20 million. That is assuming, of course, that there is a team willing to offer that kind of stash to a guy who has torn an ACL, broken a hand, dislocated an elbow and can be a crank.
The Celtics know Rondo. He knows the Celtics. It may be an uneasy alliance at times, but it’s an alliance nonetheless. If the money is on the table – and the Celtics will have to pay up – it’s hard to envision Rondo not taking it.
For better or worse, they’re stuck with each other.
But if he does re-sign, both sides, in the interest of sanity, should insist on a no-trade clause.
Peter May is the only writer who covered the final NBA games played by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. He has covered the league for three decades for The Hartford Courant and The Boston Globe and has written three books on the Boston Celtics. His work also appears in The New York Times. You can follow him on Twitter.
Unless he was on a team that is already established, I could see him butting heads with younger talent like what’s in Charlotte or Minnesota. He would fit well with a team like the Thunder or Warriors.