The NBA mid-season trading deadline is on schedule, and the battle is on the verge of breaking out at the moment of pressure, who is the biggest winner? It's hard to say from a team perspective, but from a player's point of view, Rajon Rondo definitely deserves a nomination.
Why?
The story also needs to start from last season's offseason. After helping the Lakers win the championship, Rondo refused to execute the remaining $2.6 million player option for the year, testing the waters of the free market. After Rondo jumped out of the contract, the Lakers tried to keep Rondo, but the latter was in a relatively low position in their lineup reinforcement sequence, and giving dividends in salary and contract years was not enough for Rondo to nod in agreement.
When he won the championship for the first time, Rondo was a rising star next to the three giants of the Green Army; when he won the championship for the second time, Rondo was the green leaf vice general next to the purple and gold gemini. Rondo was quite stable in the early stages of his career, growing up with the Green Army, but after leaving Boston, he made a lot of negative news because of personality problems and arrogant attitudes, and his performance and reputation were good and bad, and it was only after the Lakers that he regained the unanimous recognition of fans and the media.
After entering the industry, Rondo's achievements at the level of honor are as follows: he was selected into the All-Star Team four times, won the championship twice, was selected for three teams once, was selected for first defense twice, was selected for second defense twice, and won the title of assist king three times. At this stage of his career, what else can make Rondo's heart lift?
First, continue to rush to the crown and increase your chips for entering the Hall of Fame.
In terms of positioning, Rondo is a very distinctive fringe star, and his peak is still far from the superstar. Personally not good at offense, never been a player in his career, and the number of best teams is small, the above three points are the biggest obstacle for Rondo to enter the Hall of Fame. According to the model prediction given by the well-known basketball website BBR, the chance of Rondo entering the Hall of Fame before joining the Lakers is about 40%, and the chance of entering the Hall of Fame after winning the championship again increases to 60.6%.
Second, a decent pension contract.
This is easy to understand, after all, no player will not get along with money. However, the team that can give senior veterans a decent pension contract and the team with the ability to compete for the championship are often not the same team. Last year, after Rondo jumped out of the contract, there were indeed many competitive teams that extended an olive branch to him, and the most active team was the Los Angeles Clippers in the same city. Until then, the Clippers had been lacking a full-fledged organizational guard.
According to what A-Smith reported at the time, Rondo had been very close to joining the Clippers, and the Clippers were probably offering a mini-middle-class offer. Only halfway out of the way, the Eagles were offered the highest of any suitor for $15 million for two years.
After some deliberation, Rondo decided to join the Hawks and play nanny ball for Trae Young. After the news was released, many fans were confused at the time, the first point of doubt was whether to give up the opportunity to chase the championship and the Hall of Fame for the gap between them, followed by the arrogant Rondo who actually took the initiative to accept playing nanny ball and being a spiritual mentor.
Admittedly, behind all these doubtful voices can be explained by higher salaries. However, in the case of a clever NBA bird like Rondo, I am afraid that when I joined the Eagles, I had a second-level plan. Looking at the league, players like Rondo are actually very scarce.
If you don't forget it, there will be an echo. Now that we already know that many strong teams are playing their own calculations, and many of them are in Win Now mode, why not take the big contract first? They will definitely consider switching to the second way to try to get themselves before the mid-season trading window next year, which is certainly a high probability event during the two-year contract period.
Isn't it the same guy who came to pursue the goddess this year or the same guy from last year? In order to get Rondo before the midseason trading window closes, the Clippers paid the price of Lou Wei + two second rounds + a small amount of cash from the Eagles trade to get the long-desired commander Rondo. Best Pension Big Contract & Final Opportunity to Rush to the Hall of Fame, which one to choose? I'm sorry, Long's guidance is all required, can it still be a big winner?