The Boston Celtics are still hot in pursuit of Chris Paul, according to a number of reports tonight from some of the world’s best (and most accurate) NBA reporters. The trade package being offered by Danny Ainge differs from report to report, but we should take the following takeaways from the latest news:

1. The Celtics want Paul very badly.
2. They are willing to surrender a whole lot in order to get Paul: One report says the package includes Rondo, Green and two first-round drafts picks. Another reports says the package includes Rondo, Bradley, one first-round draft pick, possibly Green and Marshon Brooks, a first-round draft pick the Celtics traded away on draft night for JaJuan Johnson and no longer hold the rights to. Huh? (Note: Sam Amick has since updated the story, and the package would include E’Twaun Moore, not Brooks.)
3. The C’s seem undeniably willing to trade for Paul even without a contract extension.
4. The Hornets would rather have Stephen Curry than Rajon Rondo??

More on these talks tomorrow. Right now, it’s late, I’m tired, and I need time to digest the latest, crazy batch of reports.

The Boston Celtics are not one of the four teams ESPN reports are most interested in adding Chris Paul. But the Celtics are nonetheless reportedly willing to trade for Paul even if he does not sign a contract extension. (ESPN)

The Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks have shown the most interest in trading for Paul, according to sources briefed on the talks.

There is also a small handful of teams that has informed the Hornets they are prepared to trade for Paul with no assurance that they can keep him beyond this season. That list, sources say, includes the Rockets, Boston Celtics and defending champion Dallas Mavericks.

Each of those teams would be gambling that Paul would be won over by his new surroundings and either elect to play out the final season of his current contract (valued at $17.8 million in 2012-13) or opt out of his contract on July 1, 2012, and sign a new deal. Paul’s 2011-12 salary is listed at $16.4 million.

Boston would appear to have the most to offer in such a scenario if the Celtics are willing to include point guard Rajon Rondo, but sources say that the Hornets are convinced that they can receive more from any of the so-called gambling teams than from the Knicks, who are widely regarded as Paul’s No. 1 preferred destination.

I might think differently tomorrow, and I might flip-flop again the next day, but right now I wouldn’t do it. Rajon Rondo’s a top-five point guard. He’s one of the league’s smartest players. He improves by miles every season. He changes games defensively and he’s tougher than the rottweiler that ran straight through my fence last year. He’s not quite as good as Chris Paul, but he comes cheaper and he’s close enough to Paul’s level that trading for Paul as a possible one-year rental simply doesn’t make sense…

But if the Celtics somehow acquire Paul tomorrow, they’d have a full season to convince Paul to sign and a number of assets remaining to throw at Orlando (Dwight Howard, people!). I’m not saying Ainge should pull the trigger — I wouldn’t pull the trigger myself — but it’s a risk that could yield unfathomably high returns (Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, people!). Then again, it’s a risk that could allow Paul to walk and the Celtics’ cupboard to be bare after the 2011-12 season. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Josh Smith, who shares many things in common with Rajon Rondo (among them a high school alma mater, a curiously broken jump shot, a tendency to be mentioned in trade rumors, and some level of involvement in a Lowell nightclub incident last month), defended Rondo upon hearing that his friend is on the trading block. (NBA.com)

“Rajon didn’t talk much about it but let me do it for him,” Smith said. “It’s mind-boggling to me to see people talking about getting rid of a player who damn-near broke his arm during the playoffs last year for his team and kept playing. We’re talking about arguably the best player in the playoffs for his team energy-wise, defensively and offensively. It’s a sick joke. For anyone to talk about getting rid of him, one of the elite point guards in this league and a true point who passes first and shoots second … it just reminds me of what I already knew, that the NBA is strictly a business. They can try to make it as family oriented as they want to, but at the end of the day it’s a business. And the fact is there is no loyalty in the NBA or any other profession. It’s always business.”

That’s a pretty thorough defense of Rondo, though I would also add that he’s also one of the league’s best bargains. But here’s the counter: Chris Paul’s a better basketball player. He just is. I’m not going to sit here and tell you the Celtics would have won three of the past four championships if Paul had been here instead of Rondo. Nobody could really predict that. But Paul would have given them a better chance. He’s not as flawed. Teams can’t sag off him into the paint. He’s similarly talented in most areas of basketball, but he’s a much better shooter and turns over the ball far less often.

Those are the facts. That’s why Danny Ainge would trade Rondo for Paul. There are still Paul’s injury concerns and the difference in contracts, which are elements to take into consideration. But it’s not like Ainge is trying to trade Rondo for Mike Conley or something. Chris Paul is the league’s best point guard.

Chris Paul isn’t just reportedly demanding a trade to New York (a report he and two league sources denied, for what it’s worth). He’s also reportedly reaching out to Dwight Howard in hopes that he and Howard can team together.

Would you like anything else, Chris? A rocket ship, perhaps? A date with Jessica Biel and Megan Fox, both at the same time? A parakeet that can fetch your coffee in the morning? (Yahoo! Sports)

Paul has reached out to Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard recently, encouraging Howard to find a way for the two to play together, sources told Yahoo! Sports. That would be a difficult scenario for the Knicks to make happen. Paul’s desire to join the Knicks was cemented after he spent so much time in New York over the summer with close friend Carmelo Anthony.

If Paul were to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent after this season, he could sign a maximum four-year, $74 million deal with another team. The Knicks currently would have enough salary-cap room to offer him a four-year, $55.5 million contract with a starting salary of $13 million.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again. Ainge is planning his second coup of the past five years. He wants to reload on the fly, and he’s shooting to add both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard to the Boston lineup.

If Paul wants to play in New York and only New York, the Celtics are (obviously) screwed. But if he’s also open to teaming with Dwight Howard somewhere, there are two teams I immediately think of with the assets, management, financial flexibility and major market to entice the tandem: Boston and Los Angeles.

It’s still a pipe dream. A ridiculous, why-even-bother-thinking-about-it improbability. But Ainge has done it before.

Rajon Rondo can be stubborn, aloof and moody. He can rub teammates and coaches the wrong way. He’s steadfast in his beliefs and willing to share them with any member of the Boston Celtics. But even when he struggled during the second half of last season, there was a belief he had turned the corner personally and become a player the Celtics admired and (mostly) got along with, on and off the court.

Or maybe not.

Donny Marshall told NBC SportsTalk that Rondo still causes trouble in Boston’s locker room.

“My sources tell me he’s started to wear his welcome out a little bit,” Marshall said.

In his book (I haven’t read it yet, so my knowledge is second-hand), Shaq noted that Rondo occasionally ticked off his older teammates. Shaq called Rondo stubborn and said he wouldn’t change. But that’s nothing new. We’ve known Rondo to be stubborn and set in his ways, ever since he was a rookie coming out of the University of Kentucky. Calling Rondo stubborn is like calling Kevin Garnett crazy — yeah, no kidding, but his team needs to learn to deal with it, because like it or not, that’s just part of his personality. Good luck potty training a 25-year old dog.

Sporting News reporter Sean Deveney wrote a column this week saying the Boston Celtics are just using these trade rumors to motivate Rondo.

Fast forward to this bizarre offseason, and you can’t help but get the sense that the Celtics are leaning on the “trade Rondo” tactic yet again—not because they are actually looking to trade Rondo, but because they want to snap him out of the funk he seemed to fall into after the team traded his good friend Kendrick Perkins in a surprise move last February. Before the trade, Rondo averaged 10.8 points on 50.9 percent shooting, with 12.3 assists. After, he was down to 9.8 points on 41.6 percent shooting, with 9.2 assists. The Celtics were 41-14 before the deal, and 15-12 after. Rondo played hurt against the Heat in the second round of the playoffs, where the Celtics lost in five games. …

What it all comes down to is the Celtics looking to give Rondo a kick in the trousers at a time when they know they need their point guard to be at his best. Rondo might not want to admit it, but Pierce, Allen and Garnett are getting older and the championship window is closing. If the Celtics do have another run in them, they need their point man to be well-adjusted and ready to produce the way he had done before Perkins was traded.

These trade rumors will likely prove to be little more than a way to assure Rondo comes in with sharpened focus.

But if that’s the case, why didn’t they try motivating him during the regular season? If what Rondo needs to play well is a kick in the rump, why didn’t Doc Rivers just come out and say, “Look, guys, our point guard’s playing like a drunken Jose Calderon. We know he’s capable of better. Hell, he spent the first half of the season threatening to break NBA assist records and generally playing like a top-three point guard in the NBA. But right now, we’re not getting much of anything from him.”

Here’s what Rivers said instead:

“I don’t know if he’s slumping. He’s not playing great right now, but I don’t think he’s slumping or anything,” said Rivers, who told reporters in New Jersey that Rondo’s ankle was fine. “He’s just going through a stretch. It’s a long season. He’s human the last time I checked, and he’s going to go through stretches just like Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen] and Kevin [Garnett]. They’ve all gone through stretches.”

Rivers always publicly backed Rondo, no matter how poorly or disinterested the All-Star played at times last season. Maybe that’s because Rondo’s moody — maybe one negative word from Rivers could send him into a tailspin. But that never stopped Rivers with other players. Glen Davis is as moody as an eight-months pregnant woman, yet Rivers took (admittedly subdued) public shots at him fairly frequently. They didn’t work out — Davis just kept spiraling deeper and deeper into the world of bricked jumpers and shaky decisions. But Rivers didn’t hold his tongue with Davis, even though Davis clearly is the type to be adversely affected by being called out in the press.

Kevin Garnett backed Rondo, too, even during the depths of last season’s slump. After Rondo went scoreless and rebound-less against the Indiana Pacers, Garnett had this to say:

“Rondo’s playing hurt,” said Garnett. “He’s hurting. He’s giving us everything he has. He’s grinding. He’s playing countless minutes for us, and he’s not playing like a washed-up guy.”

That doesn’t sound like someone fed up with his teammate. Nor does the following comment from Jermaine O’Neal, taken after Rondo returned to the Miami Heat game with one arm (pretty much) tied behind his back.

“He’s one of the tougher point guards in this league and he wants to win. And that’s the first thing I asked him when he came back, I asked him, ‘Are you sure that you want to be back out here?’ And he said, ‘Look, we don’t have any games to give,’ and that’s Rondo.”

Rondo can obviously be a nuisance sometimes. He’s prideful, and not always in a good way. He’s stubborn. Nobody would argue with that. But his teammates and coaches speak about him with respect and sometimes even awe. At one of the games I covered last season, I forget which one, Rivers noted that Rondo occasionally disagreed with sets Rivers called. But Rivers wasn’t upset. He was just impressed, because Rondo saw (and understood) things on the court that even Rivers didn’t.

Would I be surprised to hear that Rondo can still be an asshole sometimes? No, not at all. In fact, given his personality, I’m sure he occasionally causes problems in the locker room, at least minor ones. But would I be surprised to hear the Celtics are shopping him around because they’re fed up with his act? Yes. They’re not trying to trade him for 75 cents on the dollar, after all. They’re trying to trade him for Chris Effing Paul, the best damn point guard in the league. If Danny Ainge isn’t simply looking to improve his basketball team, I’d be surprised.

Then again, Rondo’s play during the second half of the season can best be described as “the walking dead.” But here was Garnett’s explanation of that:

“I’ve seen him play through some (injuries). I’m not going to go through the list of injuries that you all are unaware of. I’m not going to put him out there like that but I’ve seen him play through some horrific injuries. [When he returned after the elbow injury] all of us sort of look at each other like, ‘What is he doing out here? Is he being smart right now?’ When he came in, it was just typical Rondo. Shorty is a really tough, young individual and I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he’s 35 but right now he’s playing through a lot. He’s showing a lot of heart (and) a lot of grit. We see it. That doesn’t go unspoken or unseen. We see he’s out there giving his full effort. We’re following that lead.”

I’m not completely discarding Donny Marshall’s report. But if the Celtics are really fed up with Rondo’s act, they had a funny way of talking about it last season.

By now, you know the Celtics are interested in acquiring Chris Paul. You also know it’s one of Antoine Walker’s mythical four-pointers — an extremely long shot — for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Paul would need a lot of convincing to sign a contract extension in Boston. But there could be another reason it’s a long shot: Paul’s knee, which reportedly scares the hell out of the Boston brass. (CSNNE)

One of the reasons that’s giving the C’s some reason to pause in their pursuit of Paul is his health; specifically, his surgically repaired left knee.

While he appears to have bounced back from the 2010 injury nicely, there is some concern that the injury could prove problematic in the future.

Paul suffered a torn meniscus injury in late-January of 2010. Dr. James Andrews, one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the world, performed surgery on the knee on Feb. 4. Unable to sew the torn meniscus back together, Dr. Andrews had to take the torn portion out entirely.

The knee has two menisci that essentially serve as shock absorbers between the femur and tibia bones. Paul has one now, which means there’s likely some of bone-on-bone rubbing which has the potential to get worse and ultimately lead to additional surgical procedures.

This returns to one of my original questions: Would you rather have Chris Paul for $17 million (-ish) per season, or Rajon Rondo for $11 million per season? But now there’s an additional wrinkle, considering that Paul has just one meniscus, rather than two menisci, and sounds somewhat like the point guard version of Brandon Roy.

Paul’s a better player. He has fewer flaws. He’s a much better scorer. He’s taken a New Orleans Hornets team largely devoid of talent and led them to places they shouldn’t go, such as the NBA playoffs. He doesn’t take nights off. If he came to Boston, he’d also be a bigger draw for free agents — I’m looking at you, Dwight — than Rondo.

But he’s meniscus-less in one knee, and Rondo’s one of the better bargains in the league. Even if Ainge could somehow convince Paul (and the Hornets) to accept a trade to Boston and sign an extension, there are some reasons to make Ainge pause (at least slightly) before pulling the trigger.

But damn it, Paul is so, so good.