Rajon Rondo Is a Surprising Source of Calm Among Wild Card Sacramento Kings
Of all the new faces in the Sacramento Kings' locker room—eight, to be exact—Rajon Rondo has had the most metaphorical scars.
A torn ACL in his right knee in January 2013 seemingly sapped Rondo of his former star power. In his initial return to the Boston Celtics during the 2013-14 season, he shot a career-low 40.3 percent from the field while attacking the basket timidly. In 2014-15, his free-throw shooting took a turn for the worse—from a shaky 62.1 percent in his first eight seasons down to an abysmal 39.7 percent—and rendered his forays into the lane even less frequent.
The injury also did little to quell concerns about Rondo's coachability. Two months after the C's traded him to the Dallas Mavericks, Rondo was feuding with Rick Carlisle, a coach known to be far chummier with his players than, say, George Karl.
Throw Rondo into the mix with Karl, the notoriously volatile DeMarcus Cousins and a Kings organization that's been running around like a headless chicken for years, and the team might have to move into the Golden 1 Center early after turning Sleep Train Arena into a tinderbox—and not the kind you keep on your phone.
So far, the Kings have proved to be as much of a basketball quagmire as ever, with a recent kerfuffle involving a player and coach thrusting them back into the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
But Rondo wasn't to blame for that discord, nor for Sacramento's sluggish 1-7 start. If anything, he's been the one holding the Kings together and getting them back on track after an early-season team meeting.
Rondo looked a lot like his old brilliant self in the three games following that clearing of the air. He put together consecutive triple-doubles, against the Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets, for the first time since January 2013, just before he shredded his knee.
More importantly, those two stellar efforts propelled the Kings to victory. So did Rondo's 14 assists against the Toronto Raptors. (He yet added another triple-double Wednesday night in a close loss to the Atlanta Hawks.)
Rondo did all that while averaging 45 minutes per game, with Darren Collison, his primary backup, battling a hamstring injury. CBS Sports' Ken Berger hinted that Rondo's exhausting workload could cause some friction between him and Karl, but otherwise the two seem to be getting along just fine.
"This kid is a great student of the game," Karl told Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears earlier this season. "He loves it. He has a passion for the game. He's a leader. I kid him all the time. He can be a positive or a negative leader, but his voice is heard and respected by the players. It's going to be fun with him and [Cousins]. It's going to be a good ride."
As well as Rondo has taken to Karl's freewheeling style—as opposed to Carlisle's more tightly controlled approach to play-calling—he's been an even better sidekick to Cousins. SB Nation's Yaron Weitzman noted just how helpful Rondo has been to his "little brother" and how well the two of them have worked in tandem:
"Not only are the Kings 6.2 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents when Cousins and Rondo have shared the floor, but an incredible 27 of Cousins' 62 field goals this season have come via Rondo assists, per NBA.com. That's nearly 44 percent. By comparison, Chris Paul has assisted on just 25 percent of Blake Griffin's makes this year.
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Apparently, Boogie likes what he's seen from his "big brother"—aside from Rondo's knack for rebounding, at least.
"I kind of get caught up watching him play. It's just amazing being able to watch his effort on a nightly basis," Cousins said of Rondo after exploding for 40 points and 13 rebounds in a win over the Nets, via the Associated Press. "But as far as his rebounding, it kind of gets on my nerves. He's stealing my boards, man. But man, he plays every spot on the floor."
Rondo remains one of the best in the business at crashing the boards. Among guards, only Russell Westbrook (7.8 rebounds per game) has collected more caroms than Rondo (7.5), per NBA.com.
That's nothing new for the 29-year-old Louisville native. His massive mitts have helped him rank among the top 10 perimeter rebounders in the Association every season since 2010-11.
Nor is Rondo's return to the league-wide assist leaderboard—his 9.6 assists per game are second to Westbrook's 10.4—anything out of left field. He twice paced his peers in helpers during his days in Boston and finished among the top six in that regard three other times.
But not all of Rondo's old habits are good ones. His turnover numbers (4.2 per game, on 23.3 percent of his possession) are higher than ever, while his field-goal percentage (.436) and free-throw percentage (.350) are about as low as they've ever been.
More troublingly, Rondo's defense, once his calling card, has been as bad as ever, despite what his 2.0 steals per game (eighth-most in the league) would suggest. According to NBA.com, opponents have shot 5.8 percent better from the field against Rondo, with a 16.4 percent uptick in accuracy on shots within six feet of the rim and a staggering 17.8 percent jump within 10 feet.
On the whole, Rondo hasn't helped to turn around a Sacramento defense that ranks among the 10 most porous in basketball. And if he can't keep pace with the nightly barrage of top-notch point guards in the Western Conference, how can he hope to end the Kings' nine-year playoff drought?
Of course, it's early enough that all of this could change. And, at the very least, the Kings are markedly better at securing rebounds, offensive and defensive, whenever Rondo's on the floor.
"In general, I think with a bunch of new guys coming together, it takes some time to get a feel for everything—rotations, play calls, what type of options you want," Karl said, via the Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones. The coach added, "Rajon is very intelligent there, and I think he's ahead of the curve. I've been surprised by the numbers he's putting up from the standpoint of understanding our team."
Rondo's feel for this team on both ends of the floor figures to improve as the season rolls on. As his comfort level improves, his individual performance is sure to follow.
The Kings could use a comfortable Rondo to carry them through a difficult stretch to end the month of November. They'll be on a five-game road swing through the Eastern Conference until Thanksgiving, with a back-to-back against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors on tap for their return to northern California.
If the Kings can get their act together and hang around long enough to play in some meaningful, high-pressure games during the campaign's stretch run, they just might catch a glimpse of Playoff/National TV Rondo.
That is, assuming that part of him isn't as dead as Bill Simmons thinks it is:
Karl has only coached a losing team once over a full season, so he'll do what he can to put Rondo and the Kings in prime position. If Boogie keeps bullying his way to 30- and 40-point double-doubles, Sacramento should be in the mix for a playoff berth by season's end.
Rondo, for his part, has every incentive to be a good citizen and productive member of the Kings' hoops society. He'll be a free agent in July, after failing to garner anything more than the one-year, $9.5 million offer he signed with Sacramento this past summer. A strong season from here on out could put Rondo in position to rake in a lucrative, long-term deal, perhaps even with the Kings.
Rondo, though, won't be consumed by dollar signs, good or bad.
"What's for me is what's for me," he told Yahoo Sports' Spears. "Everybody always talks about money, money, money. But for me it's all about happiness."
In bringing joy back to Sacramento and its long-suffering fans, he just might find a modicum of peace and contentment for himself.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
