What are the Celtics up to?

Quick Answer: Who the hell knows?

In-depth approach: Hmmm...after the latest rumor to surface today involving point guard Rajon Rondo -- Rondo and Brian Scalabrine to Memphis for Mike Conley and and Rudy Gay -- it has become 100% clear that the Celtics are intent on shopping around their once-prized point guard to at least see if they can get anything of value.

Why? Well it looks like Danny Ainge sees trouble ahead in his contract negotiations with Rondo. The Kentucky alum has one year left on his deal and has already been quoted saying he's looking for max money. That's laughable unto itself, but the fact that Rondo legit thinks he's worth that much has to be scary for Ainge and the C's brass, especially considering they already have three players (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen) making max or close to it.

Ray will be off the books by then and you can bet that's the ONLY reason why he's being shopped around in these reported Rondo deals. A) In the downtrending economy and in a league that was hesitant to make trade-deadline deals because of financial concerns, Allen's $19 million+ expiring deal becomes a valuable trading chip. B) The Celtics regardless if they trade Allen or let him walk after next season (can we all agree he's 3-years-and-done with the Green?) it will free up plenty of cap space for the vaunted Summer of 2010 when Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki and plenty of others becomes free agents.

In fact, the C's have already been linked to DWade by more than one outlet.

Still, it remains a bit perplexing to see the Celtics so adamantly shop their fine young point guard. When we first heard Rondo and Ray to Phoenix for Amare and Barbosa, we all laughed, Ainge denied it and we shrugged it off. Then a few weeks later we heard Rondo to Sacramento for Jason Thompson and the No. 4 pick. Peculiar we thought, since this is widely held as one of the weakest drafts in recent memory, one where the difference between the second and 15th pick could be negligible. Why would you want to trade up in a draft like that? Rubbish, we thought.

But thennnnn, yesterday the big bombsell dropped. This wasn't just a few reports on local radio stations or various blogs, this was SportsCenter, the juggernaut of all things sports, leading off it's morning program with a whopper of a rumor: the Celtics approached Detroit about sending Rondo and Ray Allen to the Pistons for Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton.

Of course we were told that this was just a few "lower level" execs talking shop. Not Joe Dumars or Danny Ainge. Predictably, Ainge broke his cone of silence yesterday to address the swirling Rondo and Ray to Detroit rumors. Here's what he said YESTERDAY:

“I’m not sure why his name keeps popping up, but I’ll tell you this: We love Rajon, and I think everyone in here knows what kind of a player he is and what kind of a bright future he has.

“I’m not going to comment on which trade rumors are true and which ones aren’t true, but it’s amazing. And I hope you can all maintain your integrity in this world of media that we live in. It doesn’t seem that you have to have any source anymore. You can just write stuff and print stuff and things just come out of the air.

“The one thing I can assure you - I will never sit up here and say there is one player that is untradeable ever,” Ainge continued. “But the notion we might be trading him because of some reason other than we think we can be better trading any player because of any (other) reason (is not true).

“Because of his contract situation, I’ve heard speculation. I’ve heard speculation of we’re dissatisfied with him or his attitude. That stuff is so false. He showed up late for a playoff game so we’re going to trade him. None of those things are true. We love the kid and we think he has a very bright future.”

OK, damage control. But WHY were the C's so intent on shopping Rondo for the past few weeks? I mean, didn't we all think things were working out fine after last year's title run and this year's KG-less second-round exit? All of a sudden Chad Ford is on ESPN telling people the C's are unhappy with Rondo, that he has an attitude problem and he's tough to coach??

We've had Doc Rivers -- always the player's coach -- throw a few veiled references out there that Rondo may be a bit stubborn. But after his first year and the first half of the 2007-2008 season, we didn't hear much else. And when was Rondo late for a playoff game? No Celtics beat that I read covered this?

Well, things got a whole lot more interesting today. Here is what Danny Ainge had to say this morning on WEEI. Let me remind you, this is today, ONE DAY after he said the aforementioned comments above.

On being late:
"We expect him to play by the rules and be a leader as a point guard. We need him to be more of a leader," Ainge said. "There were just a couple situations where he was late this year, I don't know if he was sitting in his car, but showed up late and the rest of the team was there. We have team rules and you have to be on time. He was fined for being late, he said he was stuck in traffic, and it's just unacceptable."

On the playoff series with Orlando:
"As we saw in the Orlando series, they left him wide open," Ainge said. "His presence hurt us in winning right now because his man went and doubled onto Ray [Allen] and Paul [Pierce] and made it difficult for us."

On Rondo's attitude:
Ainge said Rondo wasn't "that disruptive of a player," but that he still hasn't fully matured.
"He's got to grow up in some cases, and I think he is, too," Ainge said. "Slowly but surely Rondo is maturing. He's getting a little bit more control over his emotions and he's responding in a more positive way as he gets older and more mature in the league."

On Rondo's contract situation:
"Not right now, I don’t think that Rondo’s a max contract player. I think it’s a good goal for Rondo to have from a monetary standpoint, to be that kind of player that warrants a max-contract player. I certainly don’t see Rondo as a max contract player today."

On signing LeBron or Dwyane Wade:
"It’s something we’ve discussed, and it’s something we’ve actually set ourselves up for, to have an opportunity to think along those lines. This year, it’s a tough call because we’re trying to win now. If we try to improve our team this summer, it could prevent us from having an opportunity to be in the stakes for a big superstar in 2010 unless it’s through a sign-and-trade. A sign-and-trade might be a more viable way to get him than through cap space.

"You’re at a disadvantage with cap space because you can’t pay them within $30 million of what their team that they’re currently with can pay them, and you can’t pay them the length of the contract for the same amount of years. So it’s better and more likely to get a superstar free agent, in most cases, through sign-and-trades.

"That’s probably our best opportunity. You also have to be an attractive team, and a team that has some value. You can’t just have the money. You have to have other players that will allow that player to win. With KG and Paul and the contracts that remain going forward, that may be the attraction. We may not have enough money, but if you have some assets to trade for that superstar, that may be your best opportunity."

--What the?? What the F is going on here. The Celtics sure kept a good lid on how unhappy they were with Rondo during the past few years. Why did no reporter cover this story? And where is Doc Rivers on all this? Wouldn't you just love to get his take?

There are possibly a few things going on here, all or none of which could be true:

1) The Celtics really are unhappy with Rondo, don't think he's going to be signable for an amount OK for them, and wouldn't mind dealing him for a young point for cheap money and either a draft pick (Ricky Rubio?) or a complementary player.

2) The C's are more concerned with clearing cap space for 2010, getting Ray Allen out of here and using their one solid trade chip (Rondo) to do so.

3) But why come out and bash Rondo in the public eye if you're trying to trade him? Makes no sense. Red's Army had an interesting theory that maybe Ainge is trying to negotiate throgh trade rumors and the media. Something like: "You haven't been the perfect model citizen and team player for us, we even tried to trade you and no one bite, you know you aren't worth max money, but we'll pay you X instead."

or 4) Ainge has zero clue what he's doing. Why would he want to trade a pass-first point who has proven he can deal with 3 superstars and is more than capable of running the offense and driving to the hoop when he absolutely has to. It's like the pre-Big Three Era when Ainge flip flopped between making a playoff run (Gary Payton, hello again Antoine Walker) and rebuilding (tanking, trading Ricky Davis for nothing, etc.) every other year.

What's the answer? I have no idea. But if you believe in one of the four options, or have a theory of your own, by all means comment. I know we have some serious hoop fans here. So lemme know what you think.

--Nick