Rondo had Breakfast with Kobe

Rajon Rondo spent some time having breakfast with Kobe Bryant in Boston a couple weeks back. It appears now that meeting may have been more of a recruiting pitch than originally anticipated.
 
According to Sam Amick of USA Today, the Los Angeles Lakers made a play for both Rondo and Jeff Green.

The Lakers inquired about a deal Thursday that would send forward Jordan Hill and a first-round pick to the Celtics for Rondo and forward Jeff Green, but the Celtics declined that offer, a person familiar with the details told USA TODAY Sports.

Putting together the pieces of both reports, a deal of Steve Nash and Jordan Hill for Rondo and Green would work under salary cap rules, but it's a laughable offer from a Boston perspective. Nash is out for the season with a back injury and Hill is under contract for one more season (team option) earning $9.5 million for the year. 

Hill is a 27-year-old power forward that is a solid player posting 12.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game but is not a reliable defender. He's also not the kind of trade asset that would be worth giving up Rondo for, especially when you consider the fact the Celtics wouldn't be dumping much future salary in the deal. The first round pick included in the offer would be Houston's (acquired in the Jeremy Lin deal and likely to fall late in the 20's). 

The Lakers will have the cap space to pursue Rondo in free agency in the offseason. . .  

Link

Cap space to pursue Rondo next summer.

Hmm.

There are so many things laughable about this  I don't know where to start.



You don't think Mark Cuban got an assurance from Rondo about a contract extension? You think Mark Cuban would just let Rondo walk, and to the Lakers no less? OK, Celtics' fans. Yes, we all hate the Lakers. It's hard to imagine too many things in sports we hate more. But as much as we hate this franchise and everything they represent, you know whose right behind us in their passionate dislike  for the purple?

Mark Cuban. There is simply no way he let's Rondo go to work for the Lakers, a  team that has been a thorn in his side for more than ten years and the team he wakes up every morning figuring out how he's gonna stick it to them today. You know why he told the media that the Lakers might have to amnesty Kobe? For no other purpose than  to piss them all off in La La Land. Hats off to Mark Cuban, I say. It's almost like having a former Celtic running the Mavs.

The best part of the above piece is how laughable the offer was that the Lakers made. Jordan Hill is worse than Brandan Wright, and while the Lakers' pick will no doubt be better than the Mavs pick, does anyone inside the Lakers really think Danny would have done that deal? As Kevin McHale said when the Lakers offered Bynum for Garnett, believe it or not my job is not to make the Lakers a contender.

Does anyone inside the Lakers think a number 1 plus Jordan Hill will land them a rebuilding piece? Does anyone inside the Lakers think any notable free agents will even consider signing with Mitch when Kobe's career is basically over and they have no other talent to build around?

Seriously, the Lakers need a reality check.

Soon.

Then again, it's been pretty fun watching them spiral downward into irrelevancy.