ANyone who paid attention to our offense after Stevens arrived with and without Rondo would have seen this coming. Rondo can't be fit into a system. You have to fit a system to Rondo.
Let's rehash what people like me have been saying for years. He's a complete liability without the ball. He NEEDS the ball to be effective at all. An offense must be run through him if you hope for him to have any impact. Since the ball NEEDS to be in his hands (out of necessity) and he can't shoot work lick, he's going to get inflated assists. He also needs bigs who can hit mid-range shots so that the paint is open for him to pentrate/kick.
You can't just stick him into a free-flowing ball-sharing offense and expect him to be a factor. Zach Lowe wrote an article right after the trade that basically said the Mavs offense would struggle to incorporate him.
You can't at all be surprised by this. The Mavs had the highest scoring/most efficient offense in the league prior to Rondo's arrival. You can't expect them to throw that out the window and say, "New plan... Rondo will dominate the ball the entire game... everyone else run around and get open"
Especially considering Monta Ellis is a ball-dominating guard already on that roster.
Man... the smug I-Told-You-So vindication is just oooooozing out of me right now. THis is glorious.
That said, it's not like Rondo is dead. He proved to be a solid player for us last season. His per-36 numbers this season were the best in his career: 9 points, 12.3 assists, 8.5 rebounds, 1.9 steals. SUrprised those are the best of his career? Well people typically remember his amazing stats during playoff runs... playoff runs when he averaged upwards of 43 minutes per game. This season he averaged 30 minutes for us. THink about it.
Dallas thing is probably a failed experiment. Some stupid team will panic this offseason and throw a bunch of money at Rondo hoping to make a splash. It'll probably be the Lakers or Knicks. When that happens, they will probably give him the keys to the offense and we'll see some typical Rondo numbers return. Can you win with him as the best player though? Nah.
Really interesting thing is that Rondo was asking for 100 mil from Boston. Ainge sending him to Dallas and watching him get exposed must be a heck of a humbling experience for Rondo. Even a dumb team like the Lakers/Knicks would be a bit crazy to give him a max contract. This is going to cost Rondo a lot of money. Maybe Boston can reach out to him this offseason and say, "yo... 8 miil a year to join our guard rotation off the bench... take it or leave it"
Better yet, let's sign him on the cheap-cheap for the laughs, give him a solid two months of Rondo-centric offense, get them inflated stats back up, and then trade him for a 1st to some sucker team. If he was worth a late 1st on an expiring contract, how much will inflated stat rondo and a 5 year contract fetch?
Topic: Welp, here we go...Rondo and Carlisle going at each other (Read 59541 times)