Even if Rondo walked, we'd have a helluva lot more cap space than we do now. Sign IT and that limits our backcourt flexibility for years. It's IT and little backcourt flexibility for years, or a year of Rondo and he re-signs, or a year of Rondo and immediate backcourt flexibility and more cap space.
The risk is overblown.
Exactly. If Rondo does end up walking, we would have approximately $31.4 on our books next season (Cousins, Landry, Thompson, Stauskas, & McCallum). That gives us $35 mil in cap space. If we're able to move Landry for a better fitting piece or more cap space we would be in even better shape ($41.6 mil in cap space).
Depending on who opts out of their contracts you could be looking to sign guys like Rondo, Dragic, Irving, Afflalo, D. Green, W. Matthews, Shumpert, K. Thompson, Gay, J. Butler, K. Leonard, W. Chandler, Aldridge, Love, Asik, M. Gasol, D. Jordan, & R. Lopez. Depending on how the season goes, we could resign Rondo and Gay and sign a guy like Jordan or Gasol to be that shotblocker we've been longing for. It might be a long shot, but this trade still gives us the ability to remain relevant.