Los Angeles Lakers Should Stay Away From Rajon Rondo

The Celtics have once again decided that they are going to explore trade options for their star player, Rajon Rondo. We’ve seen this before, and, of course, the Lakers have come up as potential suitors for the point guard. Some people are going to advocate for trading for Rondo; however, I don’t believe the Los Angeles Lakers should pursue him.

The Lakers are currently the eighth worst team as far as field goal percentage goes. Rajon Rondo is shooting 40.3 percent right now. Adding that to the starting lineup with Kobe Bryant who is shooting 38.2 percent from the floor? Yeah, no thank you. Rondo is also shooting 25 percent from three point land, as well as a incredibly awful 33.3 percent from the free throw line. Also, his offensive rating is 96 per 100 possessions, which would be the lowest of his career if the season were to end today. That doesn’t exactly help a team on offense. Just look at his short chart.

That’s a whole lot of red that the Lakers shouldn’t want to deal with. Rondo has taken 200 shots, yet only has 182 points (shouts to Bo Churney for this find).  The opposition wouldn’t have to worry about guarding the perimeter, making it that much harder to score in the paint.

Sure, some people are going to argue that Rondo makes up for it with his assists. The thing is, the Lakers already have a ball dominant guard in Kobe Bryant. Bryant’s usage percentage this year is a whopping 36.4 percent, which means he’s either going to have to share the ball with Rondo, or the point guard isn’t going to have the ball in his hands as much, which defeats the purpose of having him on the team since he can’t be used off the ball too much, and won’t have the ball in his hands to dish out assists.

There has been a lot of talk this season about Kobe shooting too much since the Lakers don’t have anyone else to shoot the ball. Rondo isn’t going to magically make the players better shooters. Right now, the Lakers only have one perimeter player (Wayne Ellington) shooting above 43 percent from the field.

Another reason the Lakers shouldn’t trade for him is the price they may have to pay in order to get him for half a year. The Celtics are in rebuilding mode, so they are going to want young guys, expiring contracts, and/or picks of some sort. The Lakers have expiring deals and a couple picks, but they shouldn’t shell out their future in order to procure a player they might not even have next year. Don’t forget, Rondo is almost 29 years old. I don’t think I have to remind anyone, but the last time the Lakers made a deal for a star player for half a year and a chance to re-sign him, they got burned badly. The Lakers really need to gather as much young talent as they can, and giving up future draft picks isn’t going to do that.

As most Lakers fans know, the team is in tank mode so that they can keep their pick. With the acquisition of Rondo, the Lakers would most certainly be taken out of the bottom five teams in the league, leading to the pick going to the Phoenix Suns, taking away the prospect of securing a player like Karl Towns, Jahlil Okafor, or Emmanuel Mudiay.

Going along with that, it seems like the Lakers are going to have to throw a max deal at Rondo, which is not a good idea at all. There are better, younger players who the Lakers might have a shot at maxing out in the next couple of years. It wouldn’t be wise for the Lakers to max out a player such as Rondo right when they are getting rid of Kobe’s huge contract — assuming he retires at the end of his contract, or the Lakers don’t re-sign him to another big deal.

The Lakers shouldn’t take the chance on trading for Rondo if they are serious about rebuilding from the ground up — or at all, really. The wise move is to stand pat, and let a team who could use him better take him.