Rajon Rondo is the lone Boston Celtic left behind. After the team traded away Doc Rivers to the Los Angeles Clippers and Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets, the point guard is all that is left from the last championship run by the team. Now as the Celtics enter a rebuilding year with a new coach, Rondo recognizes that this is his team to take control of.
As the preseason begins in Boston, Rondo is not on the court. The point guard is still recovering from surgery to repair a torn ACL suffered late last season. As of now, Boston does not expect Rondo to return until at least December, but that is not stopping the point guard from stepping up as a leader for the young team.
"It's a brand new start for us as a team," Rondo said, via CBSSports.com. "This is my team; why would I want to leave? Why would I want out? I've ever really backed away from a challenge."
There was plenty of speculation that Rondo would request a trade after the Celtics sent away all of their fire power in favor of rebuilding under new head coach Brad Stevens. Rondo denies the desire to leave the team, instead admitting to being onboard with helping build up a new group of Celtics. In an effort to help get his teammates to rise to the occasion, Rondo is becoming more assertive in order to push people.
"That's my natural instinct -- to make my teammates better," Rondo said. "And regardless of who's out there on the floor, I believe I do make everybody out there better. I'm going to push as hard as I can. I'm going to demand a lot out of them. I wouldn't demand anything that I don't demand of myself."
The point guard has remained relatively quiet about the trades that dismantled the Boston core. Rondo only spoke briefly on the matter earlier in the preseason saying that it was just business and he really felt nothing in regards to the moves. However, he notes that he talks to Garnett and Pierce and certainly keeps their presence alive with the team.
"I was just talking about them in the locker room today -- telling some stories about how KG was, things Paul did," Rondo said. "At the end of the day, I still talk to every one of those guys. I talk to Jet [Jason Terry]. I talk to P. I talked to Kevin [Monday]. We still check on each other. It's a brotherhood. It's something you can't erase. We won titles together. We've been through the fire together. It's something for life."
