Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Especially when said meal is used as a jumping off point for free-agency and trade chatter.
Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com tweeted out the following pictures of…gasp…Kobe Bryant and Rajon Rondo getting their breakfast fill together on Thursday:
Kobe & Rondo grabbed breakfast in Boston. KB loves him. LAL could probably get RR for two 1sts + Nash expiring deal. pic.twitter.com/PYeEt0zI04
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) December 4, 2014
Another shot of Kobe & Rondo grabbing breakfast in Boston: pic.twitter.com/TK6qBEB5qx
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) December 4, 2014
Star meet-and-greets tend to fuel speculation. Take the chance encounter between Rondo and then-Timberwolves star Kevin Love over the summer at Fenway Park. Stuff got crazy once they were seen together. Now this. And because of this, the search for insight is naturally reaching new levels of inquisitive. Though the breakfast was deemed innocent—it always is—Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com dropped a subtle bomb on the world when she revealed that the Lakers attempted to deal for Rondo somewhat recently:
The intriguing breakfast between Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo on Thursday morning in Boston was indeed just breakfast.
The two stars had planned for weeks on meeting up for a meal when the Lakers were in Boston, sources told ESPN.com.
While there are no active talks between the two franchises involving a trade for Rondo, sources said the teams did have a brief discussion a few months ago.
It’s not clear which team initiated the call.
Rondo will be a free agent this summer, and sources stressed that the Celtics would prefer to re-sign him.
Their willingness to engage in talks regarding Rondo is merely informational at this point, sources said.
However, the Lakers have long held interest in the point guard, who helped Boston defeat them in the 2008 NBA Finals as a rookie, and sources indicate he is high on their list of free-agent targets this summer.
Should the teams re-engage in discussions about Rondo, sources indicated Boston likely would ask for at least one first-round draft pick.
This is all so very, very weird. Not the Lakers’ supposed interest in Rondo. That makes sense. He’s someone who helps increase their immediate ceiling while serving as a long-term selling point to other stars such as Marc Gasol and Kevin Durant and what not.
That the Lakers’ lack of trade assets isn’t being berated is what feels weird. Shelburne goes on to note that they’re reluctant to deal for Rondo, which would likely require that they fork over the first-round pick they received from Houston as part of the Jeremy Lin deal, as well as another. That in itself is difficult since the Lakers’ first-rounder is owed to Phoenix this year (it has top-five protection).
But assuming the Lakers scrap together some first-rounders, what else do they have? Shelburne mentions Nash’s expiring contract, but Rondo isn’t a player the Celtics are just looking to dump. They apparently want to re-sign him. And while he is a flight risk, his trade value hasn’t been obliterated to the point where he can be had for expiring pacts and picks.
If the Celtics do decide to trade Rondo—a course of action that seems more and more unlikely—it won’t be to the Lakers. They can only hope to appeal to his interests in free agency. That’s when they’ll have a shot at landing him.
Not a moment sooner.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
