The fascinating odyssey of the draft pick that led Celtics to Rajon Rondo

It's no secret that one of the biggest moves of the Danny Ainge era was landing Rajon Rondo in the 2006 NBA Draft. The No. 21 overall selection emerged as a vital piece of the Celtics future for the next decade after Ainge fought to hold onto the point guard while giving away numerous other young assets as part of the trade package for Kevin Garnett in 2007.

It’s been well documented for years how the Celtics bought the first-round pick off the Phoenix Suns on draft night in 2006 by agreeing to trade a future first-round pick, millions in cash and take on the contract of an injured Brian Grant in order land the Kentucky standout.

What is lesser known is how the deal put to an end to the tremendous odyssey of that No. 21 pick, which featured the selection being dealt five times in total (including once by Boston previously) in the months and years prior to draft night. A closer look at that journey of that selection reveals a fascinating path of roster choices before it led to the All-Star guard winding up in the hands of Ainge and company.

August 2004: The 2006 first-round pick was originally the property of the LA Lakers but they decided to use the future pick in the summer of 2004 to help dump some salary in a multi-player deal with new Celtics president Danny Ainge.

Ainge had come to Boston one year earlier and was firmly in asset acquisition mode in 2004 after the Celtics failed to make the postseason the previous season. It was August when the C’s sent a collection of young cheap talent (Chris Mihm, Chucky Atkins, Jumaine Jones) to the Lakers in order to land 36-year-old Gary Payton and 35-year-old Rick Fox on pricy expiring deals. The price of doing business for Boston and taking on the older talent? The C’s nabbed the Lakers the top-10 protected 2006 first-round pick.

It was a savvy move by Ainge in hindsight early into his tenure. While Atkins and Mihm turned into starters for the Lakers, they were role players for a 34-win Lakers team that was trying to reload around Kobe Bryant in 2005. Meanwhile, Payton helped turn the Celtics into a playoff team and Fox retired for the season. The C’s got better in the present and an extra first-round pick for their future.
Final result: Celtics own the No. 21 pick

February 2005: In an absolutely miserable Eastern Conference beyond the top two seeds (Miami, Detroit) in 2004-05, the Celtics found themselves in a position to make a postseason run as the No. 3 seed despite only being on pace to win 45 games. In order to upgrade the squad at the trade deadline, Ainge used one of his two 2006 first-round picks as an asset. Old friend Antoine Walker was languishing in Atlanta for a league-worst Hawks team and was available on the trade market.

Ainge decided to use a little trick to nab Walker and maintain his current core that was outlawed by the NBA years later. He needed Gary Payton’s salary to help complete the salary matching in the deal. Ultimately, the C’s sent Payton, Tom Gugliotta and Michael Stewart along with the Lakers 2006 first-round pick for Walker. Immediately after the deal was made though, Payton agreed to a buyout with the Hawks and signed back with the Celtics. Essentially, it was a late first-round pick for Walker (who was on an expiring deal). The deal got the C’s the No. 3 seed in the playoffs but they fell to the Pacers in a seven-game first-round series.
Final result: Hawks own the No. 21 pick.

August 2005: The Hawks were looking to rebuild and found themselves with plenty of cap room on the open market. Former Celtic Joe Johnson is an emerging star now with the Suns but Phoenix owner Robert Sarver is far apart with him on a contract extension deal. As a restricted free agent, Johnson is not able to sign with anyone outright (Suns were able to match any contract), so Atlanta offers up two first-round picks (Lakers 2006 pick, 2008 own pick) along with Boris Diaw in order to gain the rights to sign Johnson.

In hindsight, it was a massive mistake for the Suns to give up on a versatile talent in Johnson entering his prime for the run-and-gun Suns. Johnson helped bring the Hawks back toward respectability in the East while the Suns netted a solid (but limited) big for him in Diaw, along with two mid future first-round picks. The problem for Phoenix got worse when those picks turned into cash grabs for ownership instead of improving a potential championship team.
Final result: Suns own the No. 21 pick

Draft night 2006: The Celtics already had nabbed one point guard in the first round by trading a lottery selection (No. 7) in order to land Sebastian Telfair and dump Raef LaFrentz’s contract. However, the Celtics front office decided to try to trade their way back into the first round once Rajon Rondo remained on the board in the bottom half of the first round.

“We had Rondo rated very, very high in this draft,” Ainge said on draft night. “When we saw he was available around 15, 16, we started exploring some opportunities to get him. We feel like speed is the way the game is going right now.”

The Suns were a championship focused team heading into the 2006-07 season loaded with veterans. Adding young talent wasn’t a priority at the top for head coach Mike D’Antoni.

“It’s pretty simple. There were four or five guys we were interested in, but they were off the board,” the Suns head coach said of the trade. “We love the group of players we have and want to keep them together. We want go to battle with the guys from last year’s team and we are getting back one of the top players in the league – Amaré Stoudemire. We think we are real close to playing for an NBA championship with the team we have.”

The Suns had a pretty long list of demands for the Celtics to land the No. 21 pick but all of them were cash motivated: Give up a 2007 first-round pick (no salary for Suns to pay a first-round rookie in 2006), take on the contract of Brian Grant, and give up a few million dollars.

Celtics ownership bit the bullet on the high price tag on the advice of the front office in order to land Rondo and pay off the Suns for the pick.

"Ownership deserves a lot of credit for that," former Celtics assistant GM Ryan McDonough told SB Nation in 2013. "Wyc and Steve said, ‘Alright you guys think he’s going to be that good,’ and it was unanimous that we did. We thought he could be a special player and luckily he was because we asked them to pay a lot of money to go get that pick."

The end result was the conclusion of a fascinating odyssey for the No. 21 overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. A pick that started in LA and was moved four times over two years (involving the Celtics twice), finally ended up in Boston, giving the Celtics their All-Star point guard of the future.