The trade for Rondo & the NBA's best mid-season swaps.
by rick olivares pic from the Texarkana Gazette
Why are you acting so surprised? I am kind of
surprised that the Boston Celtics did not trade Rajon Rondo much earlier. They
dispatched their veterans but kept their moody young point guard. And now there
is no one left from their 2008 title team. But they still do not take the cake
for a team so quick to dismantle a championship squad. The honor belongs to the
Jerrys (the dumpkopfs Krause and Reinsdorf who since 1998 are still looking for
that elusive seventh NBA championship).
How huge is this for the Dallas Mavericks who are
looking for one realistic last shot at a second NBA title as the clock winds
down on Dirk Nowitski’s incredible NBA career?
Massive. Consider their starting rotation – Rondo and
Monta Ellis at the backcourt with Chandler Parsons, Nowitski, and Chandler in
the frontcourt. I don’t expect this team to go to the track meet but still…
Rondo gives the Mavericks a two-way player and a feisty one at that for the
right reasons, I would surmise though.
Will Boston General Manager’s Danny Ainge’s assist to
former Celtics teammate Rick Carlisle payoff? After all, Kevin McHale threw him
a lifeline of an assist when he traded Kevin Garnett to him in 2008. Time to
pay it back and hope that good karma returns in the players they got as well as
the draft picks.
We will find out how good a trade this was by season’s
end. Now there have been a lot of very good mid-season trades; some of which
rejuvenated clubs. However, few resulted in a finals berth or even with a
championship.
Here are some of the best mid-season trades in NBA
history that resulted in a NBA Finals berth and/or a championship.
In January 15, 1965, the San Francisco Warriors sent
Wilt Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer,
Paul Neumann, and cash considerations. Philadelphia didn’t get past Boston in
the Eastern Conference that year and the next. But for the 1966-67 NBA title,
Chamberlain and the Sixers faced off against his old SF Warriors team. You know
what they say about payback as Philly won in six.
On February 15, 1995, there was a reunion in Houston
as Clyde Drexler, who played his college with the University of Houston,
rejoined Hakeem Olajuwon with the NBA Rockets. Drexler and Tracy Murray were
sent by the Portland Trailblazers to the Rockets for Otis Thorpe, draft rights
to Marcelo Nicola and a first round draft pick. Drexler, who led Portland to
two NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992, nabbed his one and only championship ring that
season when Houston dispatched the youthful Orlando Magic in four straight.
On February 22, 2001, the Atlanta Hawks traded their
long-time center Dikembe Mutombo and Roshown McLeod to the Philadelphia 76ers
for Theo Ratliff, Nazr Mohammed, Toni Kukoc, and Pepe Sanchez. Mutombo provided
the rim protector Philly needed while Allen Iverson, Eric Snow, and Aaron McKie
took care of the scoring. They made it to the NBA Finals where they defeated
the Los Angeles Lakers in Game One. But that was it for Larry Brown’s gritty
Sixers who lost the next four matches.
On February 19, 2004, a three-team sent mercurial
Rasheed Wallace and Mike James to the Detroit Pistons while Chucky Atkins and
Lindsey Hunter went from Motown to Beantown while Bobby Sura, Zeljko Rebraca,
and Chris Mills got shipped to the Atlanta Hawks. The curious thing here is,
Boston waived Hunter who was immediately re-acquired by Detroit and he went on
to help win the NBA title four months later.
On February 1, 2008, Pau Gasol, was traded by Memphis
along with a second round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kwame Brown,
Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, and the draft rights to Marc Gasol and two
first round draft picks. The Lakers made the NBA Finals that year only to fall
to Rondo’s Celtics. But they did win two in a row after that.
Fast forward to today. Rondo is in his ninth year and
the sad plight of the Celtics in the past years has made him hungry for another
title. It could be the last ride for these Mavericks as Nowitski and Chandler
are on their last legs. The Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban believes he can re-sign
Rondo to a multi-year contract. I’d say that it depends on how this season
finishes.
For the sake of argument, what makes a trade a “good
one?” I’d say one that leads to a title run and a bunch of titles. Making the
conference finals for a couple of years is good too, but you want to stack that
against what they gave up in return for that trade. Who came out better in that
deal? At least, that is how I see it.
As for Rondo and the Mavs -- it’s going to be
interesting to see how this pans out.
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