It’s been about six weeks since Rajon Rondo was shipped off to Dallas. Aside from his 29 point explosion against the Celtics, Rondo and the Mavericks have struggled:
The Mavs are 11-8 since Rondo’s arrival. Not bad, but a lot worse than their 19-8 record before his arrival. Their defensive rating has improved 2.3 points per 100 possessions with Rondo, but their offensive rating has dropped drastically, from a league-best 113.6 pre-Rondo to 106.3 since the deal.
This losing streak started when Rondo, whose crunch-time prowess was trumpeted by the Dallas decision-makers upon his arrival, was benched for the final 5:12 in a 102-98 loss against the Chicago Bulls. Rick Carlisle declined to discuss the logic of his coach’s decision, but the only reasonable explanation is that he valued spacing and shooting over the tangibles and intangibles that Rondo can provide.
Two losses later, it’s tough not to wonder whether Rondo is a long-term fit for the Mavs, especially if it takes a near-max contract to keep him.
“This isn’t a Rondo thing,” Carlisle said, trying to cut off that line of thinking. “This is a team thing. Right now, we’ve got to circle the wagons.”
Rondo’s scoring is up (8.3 to 10 ppg), but his shooting (40.5% to 40.2%) and free throw percentage (39% to 26%), assists (10.8 to 7 apg) and rebounds (7.5 to 5.3 rpg) are all down since the trade. He’s reached double-digit assists just twice in 22 games. Here’s a brutal assessment, courtesy Mavs Moneyball:
This team had a lot of problems on defense before the trade, but it’s been incredibly frustrating to watch Rajon Rondo on offense this year. He really has been mediocre, whether you look at his stats one by one or at more holistic measures. No matter your preferred flavor of advanced stats, he’s been not just below average for an NBA player, but significantly worse than he was in Boston, where despite his poor shooting, he was doing quite well earlier this season.
Surprisingly, it’s not really his shooting that’s to blame for his dip in performance. He’s still a bad shooter, but his true shooting percentage hasn’t really changed at all, although he’s unfortunately started taking more shots than he did in Boston, which is just not something Rondo should be doing. His rebounds per 36 minutes are down, his assists are down, his turnovers are down a little (but not even remotely in proportion to his assists), and his fouls are up. In short, he’s not been the player the Mavericks thought they were getting.
This is not the way you go about securing a max contract.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
