NBA Trade Rumors: Rajon Rondo may or may not be "more available" for trade this summer

Like it or not, believe them or not, ready for them or not, the Rajon Rondo rumors are going to persist.  I don't know what (outside an actual trade) would make them really stop.  Maybe once he hits free agency and if he happens to choose to stay in Boston and can work in a no-trade clause of some sort, then the rumors would die down for the most part.  Though not completely.  Basically for as long as Rondo is a Celtic and Ainge is the GM, we're going to keep hearing these reports over and over again.

Here's the latest scuttle from the very reliable and straight shooting Steve Bulpett.  As well as the expected refuting of the rumors by Ainge.

Danny Ainge analyzes all things Rajon Rondo | Boston Herald

But what we’ve been hearing for a while and in more concerted tones here is that Rajon Rondo may be more available now than ever before. Danny Ainge yesterday dismissed a report that the Knicks had turned down a deal for the All-Star point guard as "maybe the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard."

The Celts’ president of basketball operations, as well, dismissed talk of Rondo’s obtainability.

"That’s all speculation," Ainge said. "Those aren’t facts. People don’t know that, so it’s just people speculating on Rondo’s free agency next summer. That’s all that you’re hearing. You’re not hearing any facts from anybody. Those conversations haven’t even been discussed, so that’s just speculation."

Those two sides appear to be contradictory but I'm pretty sure that both could be true.  There probably is a lot of speculation going on among other GMs unrelated to conversations they've had with Ainge.  On the other hand, Ainge isn't saying (and would never say) that Rondo isn't "more available" just that the GMs are speculating.  So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Regardless, Ainge is saying the right things.  Read the rest of the piece for more Rondo praise and comparisons to Paul Pierce at this stage in his career.  All good things.  All things that Rajon and the fans need to hear him say.  Just nothing that will make any of us feel with a great degree of confidence that Rondo is going to stay a Celtic.  But that's life.  Uncertainties are part of the process and you do the best you can with what's in front of us.

But just for discussion purposes, what do you think?  Will Rajon be traded this summer or will he still be in Boston for the start of next season?