Los Angeles Lakers revisionist history: Drafting Rajon Rondo

Rajon Rondo is currently a backup point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and has been frustrating to watch as times due to his efficiency. It is not his tenure with the Lakers that Rondo will be remembered for, though, it is instead his tenure with the Boston Celtics.

The Phoenix Suns drafted Rajon Rondo with the 21st pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Rondo was then dealt to the Boston Celtics alongside Brian Grant and cash for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2007 first-round pick, which turned into Rudy Fernandez.

Rondo went on to win a championship in Boston, make four All-Star teams, four All-Defensive teams and even the All-NBA Third Team. Rondo was one of the best points guards in the league in the late 2000s and early 2010s for the Lakers’ bitter rival and two-time Finals foe in that time period.

But what if I told you that the Los Angeles Lakers could have drafted Rajon Rondo?

Five picks after Rondo was selected by the Phoenix Suns the Los Angeles Lakers were on the clock for the first time, selecting point guard Jordan Farmar. The Lakers were coming off of a 45-37 season in which Kobe Bryant averaged 35.4 points and Smush Parker was the team’s starting point guard.

Yep, Smush Parker. You remember him.

Farmar was a fine selection. While he did not play much in his rookie season, he eventually blossomed into a serviceable rotational player who averaged just around 13 minutes per game in the playoffs in the Lakers’ two championship seasons.

What does this have to do with Rondo, as he was already off the board? The 21st overall pick originally belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers traded that pick two years earlier to the Boston Celtics alongside Gary Payton and Rick Fox for Chris Mihm, Chucky Atkins and Marcus Banks.

The Lakers also sent cash in the deal and received a second-round pick in return. Why did the Lakers do this? To replace Shaquille O’Neal, who the team had to trade to the Miami Heat because of a boiled-over relationship with Kobe Byrant. Mihm was okay as a Laker, but definitely not worth what the team traded for him.

The pick was then traded to Atlanta and eventually Phoenix, where Rajon was selected and then re-traded back to Boston. The 26th pick was ironically from Miami in the Shaquille O’Neal trade.

This revisionist history is easy to change. The Lakers, instead of trading their own draft pick, simply flip the selection that Miami sent for Shaq in the Mihm deal. The Lakers still get a center and get the 21st pick in the draft, which is where they select a point guard in Rajon Rondo.

How this impacts the Los Angeles Lakers moving forward

Rajon Rondo’s NBA career does not get off to as fast of a start as it did in Boston. While he was not necessarily great as a rookie, he did have a much larger role than Farmar did. His first good season was in 2007-2008, which is the year the Boston Celtics won the Finals, against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rondo impressed in the playing time he got in his rookie season and convinced the Lakers to move away from Smush Parker in 2007, which is something that happened in real life. However, the team still brings in Derek Fisher to be the starting point guard, with Rajon Rondo coming off the bench as the sixth man to help facilitate with the second unit. Lamar Odom then becomes an everyday starter.

That Celtics team is not the same with Jordan Farmar as their starting point guard. With Rondo instead in the purple and gold, you could make the case that the 2008 Finals would have belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, for argument’s sake, we will say the Celtics still get this one.

The Lakers still go on to win the 2009 NBA Finals in dominating fashion and Rondo continues to progress. He eventually wins the starting job for the following season after a tremendous showing in the playoffs, which is what he is known for.

The following season is where things get interesting. Rajon Rondo makes the all-star team and makes the All-Defensive team. While his playstyle seemingly would not mesh with Kobe Bryant, he helps take some of the ball-handling duties from Bryant, creates a deadly pick and pop with Kobe and still allows him to go iso when the time calls.

The Lakers march all the way to the 2010 NBA Finals and meet not the Boston Celtics, but the Cleveland Cavaliers. The older and battered Celtics do not get past LeBron James and the Cavs without Rondo.

NBA fans get the Finals matchup they had always dreamed of — Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James. The Lakers, having the deeper team, defeat LeBron and the Cavs. LeBron still leaves to Cleveland that summer.

Then, an important thing in NBA history doesn’t happen: the Los Angeles Lakers do not trade for Chris Paul and have it get vetoed, as they already have their all-star point guard in Rajon Rondo.

The Boston Celtics signed Rondo to a five-year, $55 million contract after the 2009-2010 season and we could assume the same for the Lakers. Lamar Odom still gets traded, albeit earlier than he was, to free up the cap space that the Lakers would be using for Rondo. They would be going over the cap, like in reality, but would have Rondo’s bird rights to do so.

The Lakers are pretty strapped financially in the future, but that does not stop the team from succeeding in the lockout-shortened season. Like in reality, the Lakers are first place in the West, but with Rondo’s strong showing in the playoffs, they do not get upset by the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers go to the NBA Finals for the fourth year in a row, the second time against LeBron James, this time on the Heat. The Heat have their Finals struggles in year one as they did in real life and the Lakers complete the threepeat, matching Kobe Bryant with Michael Jordan for two different three-peats.

The 2011-2012 Lakers once again finish in first place, actually get past the young, quickly-paced Thunder as they have a young, defensive menace in Rondo to help lockup Russell Westbrook and James Harden and go into their fifth NBA Finals in a row.

However, this time, just like in real life, everyone else around Rondo and Kobe is a bit slower, a bit worse. The Lakers lose in the Finals to the Miami Heat, giving LeBron his first championship against Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers could still complete the same trade for Dwight Howard that they did in real life and would not have to trade four draft picks for Steve Nash. While those picks ultimately did not lead to much, it would keep one of the worst trades in Lakers history from happening.

However, like real life, the 2012-2013 Lakers fail to meet expectations. Howard still clashes with Kobe Bryant and there is an internal power struggle to be the second star between Rondo and Howard.

We have to assume that Kobe Bryant still gets hurt and the Rondo-Howard Lakers are not the seventh seed but instead are the sixth seed. Despite the internal conflict, the Lakers are still 10 games better than they were that season with Rondo in the lineup. They still would fall outside the top-10.

Rondo and Howard surprise the Denver Nuggets in the first round but fall to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round.

The Lakers hold onto Rondo for one more year, as the Celtics did in real life, but without Kobe Bryant, the Lakers are not a playoff team. Instead of trading him 22 games into the next season, as the Celtics did, the Lakers see the writing on the wall and conduct a similar trade with the Dallas Mavericks.

The rest of the years are more of the same. They represent Kobe Bryant’s last years in the league as the team looks to rebuild after committing to so much salary, especially with Rondo in this alternate reality.

However, Kobe Bryant gets an extra championship out of it, NBA fans get to see the Kobe Bryant-LeBron James NBA Finals matchup that never was meant to be and Rondo goes down as one of the most important draft picks in franchise history.

After bouncing around from team to team, as he did in real life, Los Angeles Lakers champion Rajon Rondo signs a contract with the Boston Celtics prior to the 2019 season to help add point depth alongside Kemba Walker after losing Kyrie Irving and Terry Rozier.

Rajon Rondo is a Celtic for the first time, 13 years after the Celtics actually drafted him in our reality. Instead of being a Boston sports great, he is a Los Angeles sports great.