Does Rajon Rondo have a place on the Lakers when he returns? https://t.co/6JBeo1FpF4 via @LakersSBN
— LakerTom (@LakerTom) July 29, 2020
As curious as Lakers fans were to see what Rondo would do in the postseason, the team is probably better off building up synergy between their new-look bench unit and letting Rondo be a leader from the sidelines. Doing anything else would be a mistake on Vogel’s part, unless Rondo’s role is minimal.
Every player reaches a point in their careers where they have to let other players fill their role, and with the talent the Lakers have at the guard positions, Rondo has reached his. Let’s hope locker room politics don’t get in the way of that natural progression, which is directly tied to the team’s postseason success.
Could be hard to slide Rondo into the rotation if Waiters and Smith continue to play as well as they did during the scrimmages.
Rondo’s playing. The guy who will suffer is J.R. Smith. In all reality, we have yet to see a ‘regular game’ rotation even once. The closest would have to have been the first half of the first game and Caruso was out for that. TBD.
I’m not so sure, Jamie. Will depend on how well Waiters, Caruso, and Smith are playing when Rajon comes back.
I don’t see Rondo not playing if he is healthy before the playoffs. His experience is too valuable to just simply fold.
He certainly has his fans in coach Vogel and LeBron and AD but if the team is winning, it might be better not to rock the boat, especially for a guy who hasn’t played for 6 to 8 weeks.
FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:
The five-man unit that’s played the most minutes without LeBron James or Anthony Davis consists of Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and Dwight Howard. That lineup has posted a point differential of -3.5 in the 53 possessions they’ve played together, according to Cleaning the Glass, which is strange because they 124.5 points they’ve averaged per 100 possessions makes them one of the most efficient offensive units in the NBA. The defensive end is an entirely different story.
In the 53 possessions the aforementioned five-man unit has played together, they’ve allowed 128.1 points per 100 possessions, which, in layman’s terms, is really, really bad — like, one of the worst defensive lineups in the entire league bad.
When a unit struggles as mightily as that one has, the blame can’t be pinned to just one player, but it can’t be ignored that there’s only one player in that unit that’s been a negative on both the offensive and defensive end this season, and that’s Rondo.