Has Rondo turned himself into minimum salary player?

Rondo's season has turned him into the biggest risk of probably any free agent in the history of NBA free agency.

The proverbial "wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole" really seems even a stretch at this point for any other team if they are
looking for players for next season.

With his team in playoff exit mode coupled with him not playing, how is he going to impress anyone between now and whenever?

From the Cs angle/point, I will expect Ainge to say good things about Rondo if asked, but please do not even think about ever
bringing him back to Boston.

His entire situation is phenomenal.  There are few, if any, that have had similar symptoms.

Sam

I am sure Rondo is headed to LA & Show Time with Koby....remember the breakfast in Boston............there is no other answer.

112288

Poor Rajon. For many years he was seriously underpaid. He just blew any chance of becoming overpaid.

Rondo is going to have to play for a cheap one year contract next season.
If he plays like he used to, he will able to secure a nice payday starting with the 2016-17 season.
I could see the Lakers paying him $3m for one season.
If he is terrible or a malcontent, just waive him.
If the Lakers sign a free agent point guard or draft a point guard with their first pick, they probably won't have any interest in Rondo.
It's crazy that Dallas is basically walking away from him.
It's hard to have a ball dominating point guard who is a very poor shooter and has no confidence when driving to the basket.

Boston has done almost everything right over the last year or two.
If you look back at every trade they have made, you almost have to say that Boston has "won" every trade that they have been a part of.
That includes the Rondo trade to Dallas.

Very generous of you to give the Celtics that credit, TJ.  I can only respond that I can't wait until the next Caltics-Lakers championship series.

I'll bring the balloons.

Sam

I haven’t posted here much but I feel someone needs to say this. Rondo is no longer a Celtic. As they say, that horse is dead. Get off.

I confess I’m a big Rondo fan. I think he’s the most entertaining player I’ve seen since Bird. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Stevens has done an amazing job of putting together an inspiring team from what most others wrote off as rebuilding cannon fodder, I might not be a Celtics fan now that Rondo is gone. I’ve never lived in Boston and the only reason I’ve been a Celtics fan is that I was born and raised in Indiana and I started watching the Cs when they got Bird. (I nearly quit watching during the Pitino era but Wyc and Danny saved the day.)  But I’m no x’s and o’s expert and I never played organized ball so my opinion is low level lay person at best. But I will say that I’ve watched nearly every single Celtics game every year for a number of years so I do have something of a perspective and I have a strong opinion about Rondo.

1. As Doc recently said, Danny had no choice but to trade Rondo. And it wasn’t about who Rondo was or his style of play. Once he became a free agent there was a very good chance that someone would offer him more than DA could afford to give him AND pay another couple stars to play with him. Had he been able to sign Love things might have been entirely different. I never saw anything to indicate that Stevens wouldn’t want Rondo or that Rondo wouldn’t play for Stevens. Quite the opposite. I think Stevens may be the ideal coach for Rondo. It’s a shame it worked out the way it did. But the reason it did was because of contracts and timing, not Rondo himself.

2. Carlisle may be the worst possible coach for Rondo. His well documented inclination to micro-manage his players, desire to call all the plays, and loudly criticize his players behind the scenes are all no-no’s with a player like Rondo. Cuban hired a great floor general and Carlisle wants nothing but players who do exactly what he tells them. Bad combo. I have followed the situation at Dallas since Rondo was traded and it was obvious that Rondo was trying very hard to be a good citizen. And I think Carlisle tried some too. But it was a bad combination. Say what you will about you’re supposed to do what the coach tells you but this is professional basketball and coaches don’t win games, talent does. And nobody can say Rondo isn’t a great talent. You don’t hire an expert and then tell him how to do his job.

3. Rondo is not a good shooter. Everyone knows that. He has freakishly large hands that allow him to do amazing things passing and handling the ball. But big hands and great shooting touch rarely mix. That’s why many of the great bigs don’t have perimeter games or high free throw shooting percentages. But if you put three good shooters on the floor with him he might win you a championship. And his shooting was actually slowly improving…until he went to Dallas. Carlisle wants five shooters on the floor so you don’t need a lot of plays, you just look to score or pass to another guy who looks to score. Keep it simple, stupid. He wanted Rondo to immediately transform himself to fit that mold in time for Dallas to make its run. That’s not a transformation that Rondo was likely to make in a few weeks, if ever. But Rondo tried damned hard (I watched) and it had the opposite result, as about any sports psychologist could have predicted.

4. Dallas needed a defender to guard the elite guards. Well the truth is, Dallas needed a defense, period. Rondo’s defense flourished in a team defense scheme where he had two bigs that he could guide his man into and force a pass or bad shot. Dallas has no team defense and only one good defender on the front line. In today’s NBA the rules favor the offense and you cannot stop a Curry or Hardin one on one. But that’s what Dallas was asking Rondo to do. And he tried. But it can’t be done. I watched the minutes Rondo was on the floor in his last game and he was clearly frustrated. He was trying to single-handedly stop a guy who draws fouls like pie draws flies and then listen to a coach barking plays to him from the sideline every time he touched the ball. There’s only so much humiliation a guy can take.

5. Much has been made of Rondo’s personality. Most of what is written is biased by the press’s dislike of people who dislike them. That and their need to write something, anything, to justify their existence. What we know is that Rondo, like Bird or Magic or Kobe or Lebron, has an intense desire to win. So he’s intense. It shows. Sometimes it boils over. Fault him if you will but that also produces a guy who will play with a dislocated elbow or torn ACL. But he’s not an extrovert like Magic so the press thinks he’s sullen and angry. And he doesn’t suffer fools lightly so when he does talk he tends to be flippant. Ask Bird or KG a stupid question or the same question over and over and see what you get. As for his team relationships, the only player that has indicated a dislike for him was Allen. Other players who could probably produce a long list of guys they didn’t like seemed to like him a lot. KG loves him. Pierce loves him. Perk loves him. Shaq loves him. Kobe wants badly to play with him. So does Melo. If he were the locker room poison some claim wouldn’t we hear about it from someone in the locker room? Would KG have put up with that? Here’s my theory on Allen: Rondo didn’t have a father after the age of seven and he has the type of personality that expects to deal with other males on a peer level. I have a similar background and personality. Don’t patronize me. Allen has a patronizing air to him. I think I read that his father was military so there was probably a very “I’m the dominant male so you should do as you’re told and respect my seniority” culture for him growing up. I think Rondo had a similar problem with Doc, who had a couple boys not much younger than Rondo. So Doc’s posture was I’m the coach/father figure and Rondo’s was I don’t need you to be either of those things. Over time I think Rondo came to respect Doc’s experience as a coach and player and how to use that experience in a collaboration, and Doc came to recognize that he was dealing with someone who was far smarter than any other player he had ever coached. And Rondo is not just basketball smart. He’s the kind of smart that probably held intelligent conversations with adults from the time he was ten. He’s the kind of smart that thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room because the odds are very high that he is, in fact, the smartest guy in the room. Your age or position means nothing to him. So the classic relationship of the kid and the coach is not an effective relationship for Rondo. That’s why Stevens would be a better fit (Stevens is probably a better fit for all coaches. They could learn much from him.) than Carlisle.

Bottom line is Rondo was asked to play a kind of offense that accentuated his flaws and suppressed his talents and play a kind of defense no one could. His game hadn’t fully recovered from injuries, a brand new coach and significantly different team in Boston, but it was showing signs. The fact that his game fell off a cliff when he went to Dallas is no accident. He was asked to do something he didn’t have the skill (shoot) or tools (team defenders) to do, while being denied the part of the game he loved (playmaking.) It was sort of heartbreaking to watch him try. (Side note: the Mavs were also without two key players in Parsons and Harris the first two games of the series with Houston, and Ellis is in a major funk as well. There isn’t an elite PG in the league that could win those games with just an aging Dirk. But somehow it’s all on Rondo.)

If Celtics fans must still talk about him after he’s gone I’d hope we’d try to appreciate him for who he really is and has done and not what some reporter reads into him to generate some copy. Or judge him on his play in an impossible situation. Rondo helped the Cs hang another banner and, in my humble opinion, has provided some of the most entertaining moments I’ve seen in a lifetime of watching hoops. If there were some scenario that would bring him back I for one would welcome it. But that’s not likely and he’s gone now so I think fans should move on.

Atcross - GREAT post. Best analysis of Rondo I have seen so far. Unlike the knee-jerk band-wagon retread pieces all the so-called professional writers have been pumping out, your analysis is fair and thoughtful. The perspective you provide is truly insightful - it said all the things I wish I were articulate enough to say. Well done.

Post more often....

tjmakz wrote:Rondo is going to have to play for a cheap one year contract next season.
If he plays like he used to, he will able to secure a nice payday starting with the 2016-17 season.
I could see the Lakers paying him $3m for one season.
If he is terrible or a malcontent, just waive him.
If the Lakers sign a free agent point guard or draft a point guard with their first pick, they probably won't have any interest in Rondo.
It's crazy that Dallas is basically walking away from him.
It's hard to have a ball dominating point guard who is a very poor shooter and has no confidence when driving to the basket.

Boston has done almost everything right over the last year or two.
If you look back at every trade they have made, you almost have to say that Boston has "won" every trade that they have been a part of.
That includes the Rondo trade to Dallas.

too bad they suck at drafting centers

Atcross,

For a self-proclaimed "low level lay person," you certainly present your case very well. It could be argued that all of us on this board are "low level lay people" when compared to players and coaches—but I'm unconvinced of our subservience in comparison most media types...and I'm including you in that generality.


Although I might be more cynical than you about Rondo (despite the fact that he was my favorite Celtics player during his Boston tenure), I enjoyed your rationale and your logic.  I expect Rondo would be most appreciative to have you in his corner.


I hope we'll hear from you often.


Sam

I could actually see Rondo go the Knicks, Melo still needs someone to get him the ball, if they get a top big in the lottery, who knows? pairing him next to Monta Ellis wasn't near an ideal defensive backcourt.

Phil Jackson recently said that he plans to stay with the triangle. Can you imagine Rondo in a triangle offense?

Sloopjohnb wrote:Phil Jackson recently said that he plans to stay with the triangle.   Can you imagine Rondo  in a triangle offense?

The triangle is a read-and-react motion offense that requires a lot of ball movement. When run well, most possessions have several passes. The point guard's primary responsibilities are to bring the ball up, make the initial pass, then be available as a perimeter shooter to space the floor. Rather than assists being concentrated with the point guard, they are spread around, and players other than the point guard usually lead the team in assists.

On Phil Jackson's Chicago teams, Pippen and Jordan usually led the team in assists, not their point guards. Same with the Lakers, where Kobe or Lamar Odom led the team in assists.

Jackson allowed Jordan and Kobe to dominate the ball, but that was because they were elite scorers. It's tough to imagine Rondo's style fitting with the triangle.

A lot of good points on this thread.    Good, but disturbing in terms of future avenues open to Rajo.  First time I've ever hoped that an NBA player doesn't read the forum.  (Okay, okay, but somebody's making up the bunch of "guests" who always seem to be monitoring what we say.)

Sam