The Mavericks season is mercifully over after losing in five games to the Houston Rockets. While Dallas put up a good fight despite the absence of Chandler Parsons, its fate was all but sealed after a Game 2 loss in Houston that ended with Rajon Rondo on the bench for the final 23 minutes.
What’s next for Rajon Rondo?
The Mavericks are eliminated and Rondo is set to hit free agency. What does he want to do next? More importantly, should anyone want him at all?
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Dallas is once again facing an uncertain offseason, but one thing seems reasonably clear: Rondo won’t be a part of their future. So, where does the mercurial one go from here? We discuss in the latest Flanns & Zillz.
ZILLER: Man, what a disastrous season for Rajon Rondo. What’s the term for the opposite of a contract year? Do we have one? If not, I propose “Rondo Year.”
FLANNERY: Motion carried.
This is particularly painful for me because I was something of his champion during his best years in Boston. But if we’re being honest, the signs have been evident for a while. The lack of shooting, the passiveness around the basket and the decline in free throw attempts all make for an anachronism in today’s game. He brought a lot of this on himself.
Still, it’s tough to accept that the league has very little use for weirdo players anymore. There’s room for creativity, of course, but the league is becoming so homogenized that even minor deviations from the accepted norm are a problem. When your whole game is based on being different, you’d better be damn good at it, and he hasn’t been that player since the 2012 playoffs.
I’m concerned that it’s over for him. Where does he go from here?
ZILLER: The Lakers, Basketball God willing.
More on Rondo
FLANNERY: That's the general assumption around the league. You can go through the list of teams with A) need and B) money, and it gets short really quick. In years past I'd throw the Knicks in there, but Rondo is more rhombus than triangle. There's always the chance that someone does something dumb and desperate -- hey, Kings -- but after the way things ended in Dallas, who wants to take the risk? We're not just talking about a potential personality conflict anymore. There's a real question of whether he can still play at a high level.
We actually had a nice moment when I was in Houston before Game 2. It made me think about how weird it was to see him in Maverick blue getting ready for a playoff game in Houston, and how far away we both were from those Celtic runs of old. It was surreal. And then to have him benched and basically disowned by Rick Carlisle and Dirk Nowitzki after the game, just reinforced the point that he's truly a man without a home right now.
ZILLER: I haven’t been around Rondo at all, whereas you’ve seen him up close for years. In fact, you’re the nation’s leading Rondologist. As an amateur Rondo enthusiast, I have some hope he’ll be heard from again. My (again, amateur) take is that he was bored in a meaningless (or so he thought) season in Boston and he just didn’t get on with Carlisle at all. I hold that Rondo is a misunderstood genius who was out of it for half the year and rebelling the other half.
That said, as you note, he's a bad shooter in a shooter's league and he can no longer get to the rim at will or shut down opposing point guards. In those ways, he's kind of perfect for an aging, anachronistic Kobe. But if he ended up with a legit young finisher I think he could have a useful, if not memorable, twilight. What's really stopping him from becoming Jason Kidd 2.0?
FLANNERY: Well, his shooting first and foremost. Kidd became a really good three-point shooter in his latter days, but he was solid even before that, whereas Rondo has never been a perimeter threat. Kidd was also a great free throw shooter and that -- more than the outside shooting -- has been Rondo’s undoing these last few years.
I get the impulse. I have no doubt that the post-KG and Pierce Celtics didn't inspire him, but I also think that was a useful crutch to explain away his mediocre performances. Way back in 2011 after he dominated the Knicks in a playoff series, he said that he can't play that way all the time because he'd never make it through the season. That was honest and totally correct. He would get beaten to a pulp if he tried to be Playoff Rondo every night.
What hurt him was he never truly developed a counter method of playing. There were too many nights when he was either brilliant or barely there.
If Playoff Rondo is truly a thing of the past, can he transition into that latter-day Kidd role of the veteran point guard with all the smarts and knowledge who knows how to run a team and get his teammates shots? That’s not a max-player kind of role. Is he willing to accept that?
ZILLER: That's a good question. The problem is that he needs 2-3 good finishers with lower-end usage rates to allow him to play at his best offensively given his shooting woes. He needs a DeAndre Jordan and a Klay Thompson. None of the options that make the most sense are going to pay through the nose for Rondo. The teams desperate or weird enough to give him lots of money (the Lakers, Kings and Knicks) are absolutely awful fits. I once thirsted for Rondo to be paired with DeMarcus Cousins; with this Rondo and now George Karl, what a disaster that'd be.
The best basketball fit as a starter might be next to combo-ish Michael Carter-Williams in Milwaukee. Might as well go full '80s on offense and completely post-modern on defense. I actually also think Rondo would be interesting as a reserve in Portland (assuming they keep LaMarcus Aldridge, which does not seem like a safe assumption). Does Phoenix still act as a fountain of youth? If so, there. Rondo and Gerald Green can finally storm the NBA as was destined.
This is the player for whom money vs. fit is going to be a huge, huge trade-off in free agency. We’ll see where his interests lay.
FLANNERY: So, yeah, he’s probably going to the Lakers. Boston people won’t want to hear this, but teaming up with Kobe provides the best (and maybe the only) chance for Rondo to recapture his old magic. If nothing else, that would be a fascinating pairing.
ZILLER: Eager to hear why you think teaming with Kobe could rejuvenate his career. Accountability? The Mutual Asshole Appreciation Theory?
I think their styles on-court are not too complementary. Both want the ball, both can pass very well, both are at their best driving the paint and both have lost at least one step in the last three years.
FLANNERY: The latter. I think Rondo needs to be around people who appreciate him, which is a big reason why the Dallas thing didn't work out. It may end horribly, and you make a great point about whether their games can mesh. Assuming the Lakers keep their pick and add someone else in free agency, a team with Rondo, Kobe, Jordan Hill and Julius Randle plus a lottery pick and another free agent would at least be interesting on paper.
But look man, I’m grasping at straws here. I’m not ready to part with the Rondo of my imagination, and I don’t see him being happy with a backup role or in a small market. It’s really incredible how far he’s fallen, but at least he and Kobe can have breakfast whenever they want.
ZILLER: And nothing is more important than breakfast.
★★★
SB Nation presents: As the playoffs intensify, so do the fights
See More:
