Los Angeles Lakers: Why Rajon Rondo’s injury doesn’t impact title hopes

1. Rajon Rondo playoff role on the Los Angeles Lakers was set to shrink, anyway

Rajon Rondo was probably going to get more playing time in the playoffs than he otherwise was slated to get because of Avery Bradley not rejoining the team. It is simple math, one less guard meant more minutes for the other guards in the playoffs.

However, even if Rondo was going to get more playing time than originally anticipated, it still was not going to be all that significant. Rondo probably would have seen 15-20 minutes a game in the playoffs, but there is one important factor to consider in the kind of role he was going to have.

LeBron James is going to get more playing time.

Rondo’s best attribute is not his defense (despite Cowherd’s insistence) nor is it his three-point shooting, free-throw shooting, or any of the above. It is his facilitating. Rondo’s main role on this team is as a secondary distributor behind LeBron James.

Does he offer more than that? Sure, but it is not anything that other players, such as Alex Caruso (and someone else that we will get to) cannot replace. His facilitating is the biggest loss but that facilitating was going to be used less frequently in the playoffs.

That is because the workload was set to ramp up for LeBron James in the playoffs. James is averaging a career-low in minutes this season and is likely going to play somewhere around 40 a game in the playoffs.

Again, basic math here, that means that will be around eight minutes with LeBron off the court. This means that the Lakers are losing, potentially, two minutes of Rondo’s facilitating per quarter.

That is not some back-breaking loss and certainly is one that can be replaced. Better yet, the Los Angeles Lakers have exactly the right guy to do it.