RONDO, FINALLY
Clippers get point guard they have yearned for, trade Williams, picks, cash to the Hawks
Rajon Rondo is returning to L.A. to compete for another championship; this time, the veteran point guard will be suiting up for the Clippers, who on Thursday continued to line up pieces in a way that they hope ends with the franchise’s first NBA title.
About a half-hour before the trade deadline hit, the Clippers brokered a deal to bring the 6-foot-1 point guard from Atlanta in exchange for three-time Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams, two second-round picks and cash, according to multiple reports and confirmed by a league source.
Rondo, 35, signed a two-year, $15 million contract as a free agent with Atlanta prior to this season, when the Clippers were said to have wanted to sign him. Williams, 34, is on an expiring $8 million contract.
Williams — who this season is averaging 12.1 points and 3.4 assists — returns
to Georgia, where he grew up, and to the Hawks, for whom he played for two seasons between 2012-2014.
The move came the day after Williams’ 16 points in a Clippers win pushed his career total to 15,000. He finishes his Clippers tenure having scored 4,975 of those points (approximately 33%) in his four seasons with the team, a tenure that included his highest-scoring seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19, when he averaged 22.6 points and 20 points per game, respectively.
Williams — the shifty, 6-foot-1 guard known as “the Underground G.O.A.T.” and as a “professional scorer” — also was twice recognized as Sixth Man of the Year while he was a Clipper.
He’ll long be remembered for his leading role on the plucky, upstart 2018-19 Clippers, including orchestrating their historic 31-point playoff comeback against the then-two-time-defending champion Golden State Warriors. His 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting in the third quarter pulled the Clippers within striking distance in that wild Western Conference first-round game in Oakland.
After Wednesday’s game in San Antonio, Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue talked about Williams’ lasting imprint on the organization.
“He means so much to this team,” Lue said. “Coming off the bench, giving us the offensive punch that we need … He’s been playing for this team before I even got here. And that’s what he’s always generated. You don’t win Sixth Man multiple times without being able to score the basketball and play the way he does. It’s just
a pleasure and honor to have him on our team.”
And earlier this season, second-year wing Terance Mann said Williams lends a permeating sense of confidence to those around him.
“He’s confidence,” Mann said. “He just brings that confident swagger with him. He’s able to pick you up when you’re not feeling your game or whatever that might be, he’s a big-time confident guy and with him next you, you’re almost feeling yourself too.”
For his part, Rondo’s teammates have often focused on his high basketball IQ, something Kawhi Leonard, a free agent after this coming offseason, has made clear he values mightily. The Clippers’ star mentioned on several occasions recently that in addition to playing with effort he wants his team to play smart: “It’s between our ears,” he said.
So it’s worth noting that LeBron James, who described Rondo as a “mastermind,” last season spoke of his ability to not just to see things happening on the court, but to turn that perception into action.
“Being able to make adjustments on the fly and being able to see how defenses are playing, and being able to see how the game is being played and being able to see how the flow of the game is being played — there’s not many guys that can do that in our league and in the postseason,” James said. “It’s gigantic.”
So far this season, Rondo has had a much smaller impact on the Hawks. In 27 games, Rondo averaged just 3.9 points, 3.5 assists and 2.0 rebounds and is shooting 40.0% from the floor and 37.8% from deep this season.
But the Louisville native is known for playoff prowess. In 121 career playoff games, he’s averaged 13.3 points, 9.0
assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, play that’s inspired talk of an alter-ego: “Playoff Rondo.”
That moniker was employed plenty last postseason, when his contributions proved important in the Lakers’ championship run in the Orlando bubble — even though, entering the playoffs, Rondo basically was a bit player for the Lakers.
He averaged just 7.1 points and 5.0 assists and, on some nights, looked almost unplayable in the regular season. But he was again magnificent in the playoffs, shooting 45.5% from the field, 40% from the floor while averaging 8.9 points and 6.6 assists and, most key, helping dictate the action with heady, timely plays that put the Lakers on track to their 17th franchise title and Rondo’s second.
He also won a title when he was a member of the 2007-08 Boston Celtics. Lue is familiar with Rondo after serving as an assistant coach in Boston while Rondo played there, in 201112.
After last season’s embarrassing second-round playoff collapse, the Clippers have made moves with the goal of steeling their team for the postseason, hiring Lue to replace Doc Rivers and signing playoff-tested veteran free agents such as Serge Ibaka and Nicolas Batum.
Without a proven floor general on the roster, the Clippers reportedly also were in the market for Rondo during the offseason, but they couldn’t afford offer him a deal worth $7.5 million for two years, as the Hawks were.
Now the Clippers have their point guard, and they’ve got 27 regular-season games remaining before he and they will have their playoff mettle tested again.