Nov 11, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics point guard
Rajon Rondo
(right) shares a laugh with a teammate during the second quarter of their 120-105 win over the Orlando Magic at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
Countless fantasy basketball league owners have been without the services of many key players this season. An unusual amount of injuries have plagued some of the NBA’s biggest stars, but those patient owners who stashed away the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo may finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Rondo himself took to Twitter and hinted that Friday might be his grand homecoming. In a tweet issued on Monday night, Rondo simply wrote “29,233,380 secs”.
29,233,380 secs
— Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo) January 14, 2014
For all you math nerds out there, that calculates to 338 days. If Rondo were to play vs. the Lakers on Friday, that’d be — you guessed it — 338 days since he underwent surgery to repair his torn ACL on February 12, 2013.
This is fantastic news for Rondo’s owners because he has been out for the entire season. There’s been lots of speculation regarding the exact date of when he would return, and while this quote is still a bit vague in nature, it aligns correctly with Rondo’s statement earlier in the week where he gave himself a January 17 timetable. He will almost undoubtedly have a minutes restriction upon coming back, but fantasy owners aren’t complaining either way. Since his rookie season in ’06-07, Rondo’s 18 triple doubles are the third-most in the NBA during that time period, behind only Jason Kidd (31) and LeBron James (27). He is an assist machine and will take more of a scoring approach without Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in Beantown. If he’s somehow still available in your league, run to the waiver wire as fast as humanly possible and add the Celtics’ point guard.
Of course Rondo won’t be the only player who will be affected by his impending return to the court. Jordan Crawford has been filling in admirably up to this point, but his fantasy value stands to take the biggest hit. The former Xavier Musketeer has been performing at a top level, with career-highs of 5.7 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game, as well as shooting a career-best 87.3 percent from the charity stripe. The assist numbers will surely go down once Rondo comes back, and other facets of his game may suffer as well. One reason he’s excelled so much this year is because he has been used predominantly at point guard, rather than shooting guard — the position he’s spent the rest of his career at, and the one he’ll likely resume with Rondo back in Celtics’ green. There may still be a chance for you to trade him at a reduced value, but if not, it couldn’t hurt to stick it out with him. After all, Rondo is coming off ACL surgery and we’ve all seen guys like Derrick Rose, Ricky Rubio and Louis Williams have issues adjusting in recent years.