As Kobe Bryant nears a return from his torn Achilles tendon, Boston Celtics fans are eagerly awaiting the comeback of their own star, point guard Rajon Rondo. Rondo tore his right ACL in January, and is now scheduled to meet with Dr. James Andrews in the coming days to hopefully identify a timetable.
Danny Ainge, the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, made strong statements indicating this trip to visit Dr. Andrews in Florida is not a final step toward returning. "It has nothing to do with Rondo's health and it's not like a final straw or anything," Ainge said. "It's just a checkup that they've scheduled for the beginning of December. It's been on the calendar for a while."
"He's playing one-on-one and two-on-two, that type of thing, but he hasn't been cleared to do much more than that," Ainge said. Complicating matters for the Celtics, is a loaded draft class set to enter the Association this summer. The Celtics have little chance of a deep run in the postseason, much less making a championship bid, even if Rondo were at full strength. Some have speculated the Celtics may be restraining him for two reasons. The first would be to protect the future of the franchise, while the second could be a veiled effort at tanking for as high a pick as possible in the lottery.
Whether or not that is the Boston front office's plan, forward Jared Sullinger strongly denied that train of thought. "Lot of guys expect us to just tank for [Jabari] Parker or [Andrew] Wiggins," Sullinger said. "Y'all might as well throw that out the door.
I don't know why people keep talking about tanking. We got competitors around here, we're not really like that. We don't care if Jeff [Green] averages 20 [points] or I average 8, we just want to win and show everybody that they can kiss our butts about that tanking stuff."
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