The NBA trade rumors is about to reach its peak before the February deadline. Will some of the league's top point guards change jerseys?
Rajon Rondo on the Chicago Bulls with Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler elicited some of the most pessimistic projections from pundits. The Chicago Bulls were not as bad as speculated, but Rajon Rondo's flaws are already unraveling.
In a scathing piece on The Ringer, Kevin O'Connor named Rondo "the most obvious and most fixable issue" on the team. He was described as a "ball-dominant point guard" while not being an efficient scorer (.66 points per possession, one of the worst in the league).
The issue is that Rondo has low trade value. When even the Sacramento Kings, the most point guard-starved team in the league is willing to let a player walk, there aren't too many teams lining up for your services.
However, Rondo is an expiring contract worth $14 million and teams with an eye on the future could use that. A team like the Miami Heat could set themselves free from Goran Dragic. Dragic is still a starting grade point guard but Pat Riley is looking to sign a star in free agency. The Slovenian point guard's long term salary is in the way.
The Heat's situation is why Dragic may be traded first among the three point guards in question-unless he gets traded for Rondo. Riley has made it very clear that he intends to go hard on free agents-superstars even. Despite losing the Big Three almost as fast as he assembled them, the Godfather is still confident that he can reel one in.
The Kyle Lowry trade rumors sprung from Zach Lowe of ESPN's prediction on his podcast that the Sixers would pursue Lowry in free agency. Other sites jumped the gun and assumed that the Raptors' need for a defensive big man (Nerlens Noel fits the bill) would lead to a trade, but the name often associated with that was Cory Joseph or Terrence Ross.
It's unlikely that the Raptors would trade Lowry as Tip of the Tower, a Toronto sports site, doubts that Lowry would even leave Toronto in free agency.