Rajon Rondo was viewed as one of the top point guards in the league as recently as two seasons ago, but he failed to generate much buzz as a free agent this offseason partly due to the 29-year-old’s personality. Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who coached Rondo in Boston, believes that the point guard can still be successful in the league, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes.
“We had blowups, more at practice. Games were pretty good. You know, Rondo is as smart a player and as smart of a person I’ve ever been around… I don’t think people get that. You’re going to deal with difficult people, and sometimes the more successful they are and the smarter they are, the more difficult they can be. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work with them and work together,” Rivers said. “There’s so many good sides to him, as well. Every time I see that side, I think I’m glad I went through the bad stuff, because I could have given up. I could have done what you said, ‘Well, forget this, this is over.’ He’s not a guy that you should give up on.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Lester Hudson has reached an agreement to extend his deal with Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association, Enea Trapani of Sportando tweets. The deal will run until 2018. International journalist David Pick reported back in July that Liaoning was trying to bring back Hudson (Twitter link), shortly after Nick Bedard of Basketball Buddha reported that the expectation was that Hudson would be back with the team. Hudson played with Liaoning last season and then signed with the Clippers once the CBA’s season concluded.
- Ben Golliver of SI.com believes the Clippers had the best offseason among the Pacific Division teams. Golliver is critical of the team for trading away Matt Barnes, who was a key cog in the starting lineup, but he believes bringing back DeAndre Jordan as well as adding Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith and Paul Pierce makes up for it because it gives the team the ammunition to compete for a championship.