The Boston Celtics received some discouraging news on Friday in regards to their best player. Reports are coming out that Rajon Rondo will miss at least six weeks after breaking his hand and undergoing surgery.
While this injury news is not what Celtics fans wanted to hear, it’s really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Sure, Rondo will miss training camp and the start of the season — but it’s a season where the Celtics aren’t expected to do much of anything. Yes, the All-Star PG’s absence will be felt in Boston. The Celtics may not win as many games without him. But what does it really matter for a team that’s headed nowhere?
The main objective here should be getting Rondo back to full health without rushing his recovery. There’s just no reason to take any extra risk. Because if the team ultimately does decided to deal him away on or before this season’s deadline — what’s he really going to be worth at less than 100 percent?
If the Celtics are set on keeping him and building around him, the same logic should apply.
This news stings if you’re a Celtics fan. There’s no doubt about that. But if you’re a Celtics fan who wasn’t already looking slightly ahead to the future, then you’re just not being realistic.
Here’s to hoping for a speedy recovery for one of the game’s best point guards.
The Celtics made a trade on Thursday. Keith Bogans and his non-guaranteed $5.3 million salary was sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for John Lucas III, Erik Murphy, Dwight Powell, and Malcolm Thomas. Both teams swapped a pair of second-round picks. The Celtics shipped their top-55 protected selections in 2015 and 2017 from the Sacramento Kings while they received the Cavaliers’ picks in 2016 and 2017.
The Celtics received a new $5.3 million trade exception for Bogans, which they have a year to use. While Powell and Murphy face long odds to make the roster, they are talented. Powell is a young power forward who was taken with the 45th pick by the then-Charlotte Bobcats and the only player in this deal with a guaranteed contract. Murphy enjoyed a good college career at the University of Florida. Both of the second-round picks from Cleveland could come later in the Draft because the Cavaliers are expected to contend for the NBA title.
The team also waived Chris Johnson and Chris Babb on Thursday.
Christian Watford was released on Friday, but the Celtics brought him back. The Celtics can only have 20 players under contract during training camp. Since they had 18 players before they traded Bogans and took back four players, they were over the maximum amount of 20 players with the still-pending signing of Evan Turner. After the trade was completed, the Celtics released Lucas and Thomas. This brought their roster down to 18 players so they have space to sign Watford and Evan Turner. This may be confusing, but the Celtics will have more moving parts over the course of this season.
The Celtics still have 16 guaranteed contracts for 15 roster spots. They will need to be creative as they cut down their roster before the season begins on October 29th against the Brooklyn Nets.
