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Rondo, Mavs are struggling since the trade

Chuck - Red's Army January 30, 2015 Around the NBA, Rajon Rondo 38 Comments

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.

NE_Celt

Ouch.
eddysamson

I like how not only did he drastically drop the Mav’s offense rating by going there but our own offensive rating drastically dropped without him. Its purely a chemistry thing, Rondo wouldn’t be this bad if he had a whole off season with them.
- Jake Gruber
  
  People will just keep making excuses. When he goes a full season with his next team there will be some other one. Like he is too old now or something. I agree it’s a little early now, but the evidence is certainly building for people who think rondos impact has REALLY suffered since playing with 3 HOFers in their primes.
  - jrleftfoot
    
    and you guys will keep beating a dead horse. people who appreciated Rondo aren`t starting these threads , and criticizing his ” personality” is so high school girlish
bill_nair

Rondo was never worth the max in the first place.

That said. They were having a ridiculously historic offensive start to the season. Not that Rondo hasn’t bogged down the offense, but in comparison to the start of their season, no matter who was starting at PG during that time period the offense was going to come down.
- Jake Gruber
  
  Though this is a very good point, it’s a pretty odd “coincidence” that they started to come back down to earth right as the trade went down.
Redunkulous

What did old man Garnett say about chemistry? Something about gumbo and how it cooks slowly?

A team that makes a major trade like that needs a training camp and a pre-season to gel. But at least they made the trade in mid December and not in late February. They’ll be fine come April, no team in the west will have an advantage in the playoffs. Except the Warriors trying to light up PHX
- CFH
  
  Yes to this.
  
  The KG quote, because it will always be awesome:
  
  “Chemistry is something that you don’t just throw in a frying pan and mix it up with another something and throw something on top of that and then fry it up and put in a tortilla and put it in microwave, heat it up, give it to you and expect it to taste good. You know? If y’all don’t know what I’m talking about then you can’t cook and this doesn’t concern you.”
Jester00

where is fan Friday I am drunk and want read it???????
scott sullivan

There’s no way Karalis had ANYTHING to do with this article!!
- Mike C
  
  Nothing like re-hashing old wounds so we can have the “Rondo’s Value” debate for the thousandth time. This article Stinks!
BIG_HITTA1

if it quacks like a duck, then its a duck. The smart Boston fans knew that Rondo’s best days were behind him. Couple his horrible shooting with his odd (& unlikeable personality) – and his need to hold onto the ball FOREVER – and RR just ain’t gettin’ it done in Dallas. Why is anyone in the least bit surprised???!!!??!???
- jrleftfoot
  
  is that bighatea 1
zippittyay

And what is our record before and after the Rondo trade?
- zippittyay
  
  by my count, we were 8-15 with Rondo, 8-13 without him.
  - zippittyay
    
    That doesn’t include one game Rondo missed pre-trade.
  - Alex Costa
    
    I think it has more to do with the fact that Brad Stevens was trying to put THREE new players into the system, which completely messed up the chemistry of the squad. As of late, the Celtics are playing better now that they have a “solid” rotation to follow.
  - Mike C
    
    So were worse without him. Using your stats, or am I just wrong ‘Again’?
    - zippittyay
      
      Yes, you are wrong again. Alex has a very astute explanation below.
    - Jake Gruber
      
      So they are two wins worse without him? But he’s an ALL STAR, TOP 5 PG…how could he make that little of a difference? That’s weird…
      - Mike C
        
        Yeah, and I’m sure we’re just minutes away from going on a serious run of wins….”Not”! You & your little buddy ‘Zippi’ come back in 37 games when we’ve won about a dozen total, and tell me again how bad Rondo was for the Celtics. Man, the guy above was so right, “Rondo haters going to Hate no matter what!”
      - Jake Gruber
        
        I don’t even really get what you’re saying? I never said this team was good?
Nick Ault

Meanwhile, Danny is looking smug.
Dirk Diggler

Love Rondo, always will (unless he teams up with LeBron or Kobrick). I saw his last game in The Garden. But it was time to move on. Smart is the future and the future is now. With Rondo and Green out of the picture, there is no one left on the team who can undermine coach Stevens now…and that’s a good thing for this group.

Now with Smart shooting an impressive clip from three point range, getting better at the pick and roll, and playing spectacular defense…is anyone really questioning our future at the point guard position? Smart is all of TWENTY years old and is a rookie in this league. It’s not hard to picture just how good he’ll be three or four years from now.
MJ

Funny how we’re hoping the Clippers will suck this year for the sake of their pick we get from them but it’s the Mavericks whose pick we could potentially have that might be in real trouble when all is said and done, and not just because of what’s happening with Rondo now but what might happen to the team later. I think the Mavs still make it to the playoffs, but given that the west is a bloodbath, I could see Dallas getting ousted in the first round. Ellis, Rondo, and Chandler are all expiring this year, and if the Mavericks don’t prevail, they could leave them in the dust, thus making that potential 2016 pick all the sweeter.
wil

Alot of Celtics fans were baffled by the trade and specially with what we got in return. It was the right move.

Celtics cant afford to pay him max with the level he is playing.
Sean McLaughlin

All about chemistry. Because of Rondo’s phenomenal, unorthodox passing, any team that picks him up is gonna have more growing pains than usual. Just common sense. Haters gonna hate.
- Jake Gruber
  
  I’m sorry man, but if it takes the PERFECT situation of playing with 3 hall of famers for him to help a team win (and even then, if you look back at the playoffs, there were also games he nearly cost them so they had to go with House or Cassell), then the guy isn’t a good player to have. I think his record since playing with those guys in their prime has shown that he is NOT as good as many thought in terms of being one of the real best pgs in the league. Stat wise yes, but that’s about it.
MadLad

Wait. just wait. you see, the emperor had no clothes, but many fans couldnt see that. Rondos “skills” are so unique that they barely fit any team or scheme. And Ill bet a kidney that he wont have much of an impact on any team next year either. A pg who cant shoot and stretch the floor is limited in this league in 2015. I would have a good laugh when morons would say his shooting is getting better. Or show a chart that shows hes actually a average shooter and that’s not the problem. Sure.
If rondo is surrounded by all stars/ HOFers, hes pretty good. Then again, isnt everyone?
Rondo will have some good games (only when on national tv of course. wink wink), but hes not max player and the market will show that in the off season. Just like the market showed his true value in this past trade.
Sean

I love it when I see people say the Big 3 carried Rondo. We all know the truth is Rondo carried them since KG tore his ACL, How many times would he run on a fastbreak with no one to pass the ball too because they couldn’t keep up with him. Not downplaying KG & Pierce I’ll be a fan of theirs forever. But it’s not like Danny ever created a team around Rondo that suited his strengths.
- Mike C
  
  Thank you! Well said.
swissflix

hehe. here comes that first round pick after all!
GoKingsGoCeltsGoTigersGoNiners

All this rondo hate is unwarranted. Was his jump shooting frustrating? Yes, but the dude was a warrior for the celts and he deserves respect for that.
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Hex Effect

The Rondo MVP discussions are long gone. There’s no way a crippled offensive PG survives against the new wave of PGs with pretty jumpshots. I remember when I heard he was traded and the feeling I felt all over me: It was one of relief. No more did I have to be frustrated with a player so nonchalant and inconsistent on my team. A stat-padder that focused more about leading in statistics than in wins, all because he understood that his name will never be mentioned in the media if he never ponied up for triple doubles or league-leading APGs. To see him stink up the place and take games off while on the court was enough for me to have him out of Boston for good. Nine years of his moody attitude and jack-in-the-box season showings. There’s a reason the Celtics couldn’t amass a ton of national TV games even if we’re a big market team with a big fanbase, and that’s because Rondo is not viewed as a star player. I hoped he would have a career year and attract big FAs here, but with 10 PPG and 26% FT (pathetic!) he wasn’t going to even attract a D-League player!