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Sacramento Kings: Rajon Rondo Exceeding Expectations

By Gerald Bourguet

Nov 19, 2015; Miami, FL, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo (9) dribbles the ball against the Miami Heat during the first half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 19, 2015; Miami, FL, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo (9) dribbles the ball against the Miami Heat during the first half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Sacramento Kings still have work to do in the win-loss column, but Rajon Rondo has been even better than advertised.

Following his tumultuous departure from the Dallas Mavericks, Rajon Rondo was almost universally dismissed as damaged goods. His arrival in Big D turned the league’s highest scoring offense into a 26-20 squad in the 46 games he played for the Mavs.

It got so bad that the team faked an injury for him MID-PLAYOFF SERIES to spare head coach Rick Carlisle the embarrassment of outright telling the world his starting point guard had been benched.

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Between those two personalities clashing, Rondo’s 45.2 percent shooting from the foul line and the fact that his presence as a ball-dominant playmaker actually stifled Dallas’ once impressive ball movement, most of the world just accepted that there was no place for Rajon Rondo in the modern NBA.

In fact, it seemed perfectly fitting that he signed a one-year deal with a franchise as dysfunctional as the Sacramento Kings. From that day forward, everyone accepted his banishment to NBA Siberia and world wrote him off as irrelevant.

Rondo may still be playing for a losing team with the Kings at 4-9, but after needing a few games to get acclimated to his surroundings, this embattled point guard is starting to look like the triple-double machine that once thrilled Boston Celtics fans.

Through his first 13 games of the season, Rondo is averaging 12.6 points, 10.2 assists, 7.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game. His scoring leaves a bit to be desired, especially with Sacramento’s new floor general only shooting 43.8 percent from the floor and 31.0 percent from three-point territory.

But those are borderline All-Star numbers, even if he’s committing 4.1 turnovers per game and has made only seven of his 20 free throws (35 percent) on the year. Even better, he’s actually trying this season.

As you can probably tell from his poor shooting numbers, the offense has come and gone for Rondo from game to game. In his second and third games, he put up 21 points in each contest, shooting 9-for-13 and 9-for-17 from the field, respectively. The two games after that, he had a combined 14 points on 2-of-10 and 4-of-10 shooting nights.

However, ever since that highly publicized team meeting a little over a week ago, something seems to have clicked for Rondo. Over that five-game stretch, here are his numbers: 14.0 PPG, 14.2 APG, 9.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG, .463/.462/.333 shooting splits and a +4.4 point differential. The free throw shooting is still appalling, but that stat line right there is peak Rajon Rondo.

Compare that to his -8.5 point differential in the eight games before that, not to mention the Kings’ 1-7 record to that point, and it’s clear to see this new Rajon Rondo has been a major boost to the success of this struggling team, which has gone 3-2 since.

A huge part of Rondo’s improved play over that stretch has been his three-point shooting. In the eight games before the drastic turnaround, Rondo was shooting 18.8 percent from three-point range on 2.0 attempts per game. In the five since, he’s converted 46.2 percent of his 2.6 long range attempts per game.

Over the last five games, Rondo has tallied three triple-doubles, and in the two games he didn’t, he finished three points and three assists short in the first contest and one assist shy in the second. He’s got four triple-doubles on the season and he had 18 assists — tying the Kings’ franchise single game record — against the Miami Heat Thursday night.

That’s the exact kind of well-rounded play the Kings were signing on for this offseason, and though it was a joke to the rest of the league, Rondo’s recent efficient shooting has been the added bonus to help turn this team around and turn some heads around the league in the process.

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His impact on the team extends beyond his individual numbers, however, since the Kings don’t need him to score a lot to be effective. On a team with shooters and an elite big in the middle in DeMarcus Cousins, Rondo can thrive in his ideal role as facilitator and glue guy.

Per NBA.com, the Kings rank fifth in the league in assists per game (23.7 per game), and with Rondo — who ranks second in the NBA in assists (10.2 per game) and third in assist percentage (43.2 percent) — setting up his teammates for good looks, Sacramento ranks eighth in field goal percentage and second in three-point percentage.

The Kings are nowhere near being out of the woods yet, and Rondo’s shooting could just as easily dive off a cliff outside of this small five-game sample size. But something seems to have clicked for Sacramento, and even their last two losses have been competitive contests against very good Eastern Conference teams, one of which was played without Cousins.

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Rajon Rondo probably isn’t going to leverage the 2015-16 season into a max deal from some other team as a free agent next summer, and there’s always the possibility this is just contract year Rondo on display. But at the very least, the Sacramento Kings have got to love what they’re seeing from a point guard who’s finally proving he’s not so washed up after all.

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