Courtesy of Daniel Shirey / USA TODAY Sports
The rebuilding Boston Celtics organization suffered a hefty setback when four-time All-Star Rajon Rondo suffered a fractured finger on his left hand during a fall in his home Thursday night. He underwent successful surgery to fix the broken bone Friday and the point guard is expected to miss six to eight weeks, which means he will not be available to play at the start of the 2014-15 season.
The Boston Celtics announced today that guard Rajon Rondo underwent successful surgical fixation of a left metacarpal fracture this morning at New England Baptist Hospital. The injury was a result of a fall at his home last night. The surgery was performed by Dr. Hervey Kimball and Celtics Team Physician Dr. Brian McKeon. Estimated timetable for return is six to eight weeks.
Rondo is having a hard time staying healthy over the past two seasons. In January of 2013, he tore his ACL, causing him to miss the last three months of the 2012-13 season. He would return to action roughly a year later when he made his debut in the 2013-14 season in mid-January. Rondo played just 30 games last season and has missed 96 games over the last two NBA seasons.
Rondo averaged 11.7 points and 9.8 assists last season but shot a career-low 40.3 percent from the field. Six to eight weeks of recovery will push his return into November at the earliest when the season will already be underway.
Avery Bradley, a four-year veteran who signed a contract to stay with the Celtics additional four years, is expected to fill in at point guard. Boston also have second-year guard Phil Pressey and rookie Marcus Smart.
Under first-year head coach Brad Stevens, the Celtics are coming off of a long-suffering season where they finished with the third worst record in club history at 25-57.
Rondo’s name has been mentioned in trade rumors for several years now. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has stated that he has no intentions of trading the eight-year veteran, but Rondo will become a free agent after this season and Ainge has mentioned in the past that no one is untradeable. If he believes that Rondo is injury-prone now and it would be in the best interest of the organization to get as much value from the point guard in a possible trade, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe that Ainge would pull the trigger.
Just this Thursday, the Celtics were making moves to their roster. They made a trade that sent guard Keith Bogans and two future Sacramento Kings’ second-round draft picks to the Cleveland Cavaliers for forwards Erik Murphy, Dwight Powell, Malcolm Thomas, guard John Lucas III, 2016 and 2017 second-round picks, and a trade exception. They also waived guard Chris Babb and forward Chris Johnson.
I’m not saying it will happen, but if you’re a fan of Rondo, I advise you not to purchase a Celtics jersey with his name on the back of it anytime soon. I’m just saying.
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