Rajon Rondo
Last year, Rondo played for the Pelicans and averaged 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds per game, and he shot 33% from distance. That’s a solid stat line, but according to Basketball-Reference, he had 0.4 Value Over Replacement Player, and a -1.1 Box Plus/Minus. Also, NBA.com shows that last year Rondo had a -1.9 Net Rating.
Magic and Pelinka had to understand that while Rondo did put up good raw numbers for the New Orleans Pelicans last year, overall because of his porous defense and his lack of shooting, the Pelicans performed better when he was off the court.
Rondo did play exceptionally well during the post season last year. He had a +8.9 Net Rating for the playoffs. He helped the Pelicans beat the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1st round and even though New Orleans lost to the Golden State Warriors in the 2nd round, Rondo continued to excel.
Why did Magic and Pelinka signed Rondo during the offseason? They had to understand that Rondo, at age 32, was a bad defender and a dreadful shooter. They also had to know that “Playoff Rondo,” “Nationally Televised Game Rondo,” and “Normal Game Rondo” were all real, and all three versions of Rajon would appear throughout the season. But, because of Rondo’s advanced age “Normal Game Rondo” would almost certainly be the norm.
I bet Magic and Pelinka planned on having Lonzo take the bulk of the point guard minutes and that they thought Rondo would play around 15 minutes per game as the backup PG. They also anticipated that having LeBron James on the Lakers was like having a golden ticket into the playoffs.
Once the Lakers got into the playoffs a rested “Playoffs Rondo” would be able to step in for the Lakers and start to play 25 to 30 minutes per game and he’d have a huge impact during the postseason, just like he did the year before in New Orleans.
Unfortunately, Magic and Pelinka were incorrect when they assumed the Lakers would definitely make the playoffs with LeBron James on the squad, and they were wrong to sign Rondo.