NBA Trade Rumors: Rajon Rondo still interests Pistons

When the Detroit Pistons completed a sign-and-trade for Brandon Jennings I was excited for a couple of reasons. First, Jennings, for all his faults, represented a huge improvement at point guard compared to what the team could expect from Brandon Knight. Second, I was hoping that this would quiet the incessant trade rumors involving Rajon Rondo and the Pistons.

It seems on that second point, I didn't get my wish.

The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn has a small item on Rondo and the Pistons. It doesn't amount to much and doesn't even reference any talk with sources. Perhaps it is just some idle speculation by a beat writer. Anyway, here it is in its entirety:

Just because the Pistons acquired Brandon Jennings in a sign-and-trade deal with the Bucks doesn't mean they've lost interest in Rajon Rondo. In fact, they could eventually use Jennings as a trade chip and seek to acquire Rondo. There are going to be several interested parties in Rondo, and that number could increase when he shows he's fully recovered from anterior cruciate ligament surgery ...

Again, that's not much but it is something. If I wanted to look at it through an optimist's lens, I would say that any deal that involves Jennings probably wouldn't also necessarily include Greg Monroe, who was the big prize of all previous rumored deals.

Also, because this trade couldn't be consummated until close to the NBA trade deadline at least by that point the Pistons will know what they need and what they don't. They'll have a better handle on what Jennings provides, and if he could, in fact, already be the point guard they've been searching for.

They could also see where they stand as far as the vaunted "spacing issues" we're all so afraid of with the arrival of Josh Smith joining the big-man tandem of Monroe and Andre Drummond. Perhaps by that point they've got their big-man rotation down and what contributions they are getting from possible perimeter threats Chauncey Billups, Luigi Datome, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and, hell, lets throw Charlie Villanueva into the mix.

By then perhaps they are reticent to send away a point-guard who is a 3-point threat for Rondo, who has considerably less range. Or they'll be getting such lights-out production from KCP and co. that they feel more comfortable pulling the Rondo trigger.