Rajon Rondo is traded to the Dallas Mavericks. (AP)

The Dallas Mavericks sent shockwaves around the NBA by trading for Rajon Rondo. The Mavs acquired the All-Star point guard by giving up role players Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson and draft picks to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics will reportedly receive a first-round pick in the 2015 draft and a second-rounder in 2016.

Rondo joins a Mavs squad that features future Hall-of-Famer Dirk Nowitzki, Monta Ellis, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons. The new Dallas starting five easily becomes one of the most potent in the Association, and it gives Dallas coach Rick Carlisle another chess piece to work with.

Rondo could fill the Jason Kidd role that worked perfectly in 2011 when Dallas won the NBA title. Rondo does need to score to be effective. He’s a walking triple-double — just like Kidd — on offense and on defense he provides the Mavs a terrific on-the-ball defender who can stick guys like Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry and Chris Paul.

Carlisle should send his former Boston buddy Danny Ainge a Christmas card because the Celtics president of basketball operations just gift-wrapped him a wonderful holiday present. With Rondo, the Mavericks went from a very good team into one of the elite squads in the Western Conference.

“[This trade] puts [Dallas] in a position to win a championship,” ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jalen Rose said on The Grantland Basketball Hour. “They are going to be a terrific team in Dallas. [Rondo] is going to balance the floor. This guy is a floor general. He makes players around him better.”

The Mavericks are now loaded in the backcourt. Rondo and Ellis are the clear-cut starters; J.J. Barea will likely back him up at the point and Devin Harris can play either guard position. Raymond Felton is still on the roster, so Carlisle will have to make a decision who to sit because you can’t rotate five guards. It’s a nice problem to have.

If there’s a negative side to the deal it’s the Mavericks’ weakened frontcourt. Wright was a solid backup center who kept Tyson Chandler from having to play a ton of minutes. Now, Tyson will have to extend himself a bit more.

The trade ends Rondo’s nine years with the Celtics, a stretch that includes an NBA championship in 2008 and a trip to The Finals in 2010. Rondo carved out his niche in Celtic lore with some memorable playoff moments. None better than when he dislocated his left elbow in Game 3 of the playoff series against the Miami Heat in 2011. Rondo courageously returned to the game, arm dangling, and led the Celtics to an emotional win at the TD Garden.

But when the Celtics started peeling off their championship squad, Rondo — who is coming off ACL surgery last season — didn’t fit into the rebuilding process. The Celtics are clearly looking into the future, and Rondo was in the way of that plan. They drafted point guard Marcus Smart in 2014, which led many to believe was the beginning of the end of the Rondo era in Boston.

Rondo’s statistics declined in some key areas this season. His free throwing shooting percentage is a career-low .333 and his scoring average dipped to 8.3 points per game, his lowest since his rookie season of 2006-07, when he averaged 6.4.

“We all know what he does really well,’’ Celtics coach Brad Stevens told The Boston Globe. “There’s very few people in the game that can do some of the things he can do and you can probably extend that — the way he passes the ball and the way he gets other people the ball — you can extend that to the history of the game. He’s really done a lot of good things.”

Through 22 games this season, Rondo is leading the league in assists (10.8). He also is averaging a career-high 7.5 rebounds. He has also put up three triple-doubles. He has averaged 11 assists per game in four out of the last five seasons. He’s only 28 years old, so he is still in the prime of his basketball career.

“The last two years he was playing like a guy who didn’t want to get hurt,” said Grantland editor Bill Simmons, a longtime Celtics fan. “He’s gonna go to Dallas and he’s gonna be awesome. He always rose to the occasion. Now that he’s on this [Dallas] team, that’s perfect for him.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

There were three flagrant fouls called, all in the second half. The fireworks started with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter when Richard Jefferson was called for a flagrant foul after he smacked Nowitzki in the face as he drove to the basket. The Mavericks retaliated early in the fourth quarter by sending their goon, Eduardo Najera, to rough up Manu Ginobili, who was already nursing a broken nose he sustained from Game 3.

Najera attempted his best MMA move by pulling Ginobili around his neck and shoulders and throwing him down to the ground. The flagrant foul got Popovich and the Spurs riled up and Najera was immediately ejected from the game and could draw a one-game suspension or fine.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle defended Najera’s actions and even vowed to use him more because the seldom-used veteran forward is one of the few Mavericks who can match San Antonio’s physical approach.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle says his Mavericks needs to be more aggressive against the Spurs.

“We may have to look at playing Najera a little more. He was in there for a short period of time and he made an aggressive play at least,” Carlisle told reporters during a postgame news conference.

“We had seven points and seven rebounds, and a lot of it happened when [Najera] was on the floor.”

When Carlisle was asked how the Mavericks lost the game, he replied: “When you get another guy who goes 11-for-16 and hits five threes, it can easily happen. And if you additionally get your ass kicked on five to seven loose-ball plays, that is certainly going to contribute to losing.”

The “guy” Carlisle was referring to was San Antonio’s George Hill, who pumped in a playoff career-high 29 points to help lead the Spurs to a 92-89 win in Game 4.

The Dallas-San Antonio matchup has grown into one of the best rivalries in the NBA, and Carlisle feels that his team has not matched the Spurs’ intensity in this first-round series. 

“There were a set of plays especially in the last couple of games where we have to get down and dirty. We gotta come up with balls that are 50-50 balls. That is sort of the game being won and lost in the trenches,” said Carlisle, whose No. 2-seeded Mavs are down 3-1 to the No. 7-seeded Spurs.

“There’s a number of plays where we’ve got to become the aggressor on. They’ve done a very good job of deflecting balls in the series. The key thing is playing out of flow, and we’re not necessarily calling plays. We’ve got to get into situations quickly,” Carlisle explained. “When the ball starts moving around in the perimeter versus their rotations, we’ve got to make quick decisions and make plays.”

How do the Mavs adjust?

“I’ve got to look at the film and evaluate that. Making lineup changes is something you can always do. But I don’t necessarily know that is where things are at,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got to this point with a good seed in the playoffs by playing our style and doing it well. We’re just going to have to work at doing it better.”

Video courtesy of NBA.com