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Report: Rajon Rondo ‘extremely unlikely’ to stay in Dallas

By Stanford Crissey

Dec 20, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle gives instructions to guard Rajon Rondo (9) during the second half against the San Antonio Spurs at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Spurs 99-93. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 20, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle gives instructions to guard Rajon Rondo (9) during the second half against the San Antonio Spurs at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Spurs 99-93. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mavericks point guard Rajon Rondo has had blowups with coach Rick Carlisle and may be one-and-done with Dallas

Dallas Mavericks point guard Rajon Rondo has made headlines this week by getting into multiple screaming matches with his head coach Rick Carlisle.

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The team has come down firmly on the side of the coach, suspending Rondo for a game after the second fight, which was apparently an even bigger blowup than the first one.

The upshot of it all is that Rondo, according to ESPN’s Tim McMahon, is “extremely unlikely” to stay with Dallas beyond this season.

The Mavericks traded for Rondo in December, sending Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson and a first-round pick to Boston.

Things haven’t gone as planned; Rondo hasn’t meshed well with Dallas, and the shouting match with Carlisle was apparently born of a disagreement on who would call plays, the coach or the point guard.

Rondo has struggled this year, shooting at 41. 2 percent with Dallas (compared to his heyday in Boston, when he was usually shooting in the 50s). He is averaging just 9.0 points and 6.2 assists with his new team, and is shooting a ghastly 28 percent from the free throw line. That’s half what Shaq used to do.

The trade is now starting to look like a loss for Dallas; if things keep going this way, they might have been better off if they had never made the trade in the first place.

That’s especially true if Rondo doesn’t re-sign; giving up that many assets for your point guard for the next five years is one thing, but giving them up for five months of play at his current level is really another.

Whatever happens next year, a feud between the coach and the point guard can’t be great for the chemistry of this year’s team either.

Rondo re-signing is on the back burner right now in Dallas, as the team needs to make sure Rondo and Carlisle can co-exist, and try to avoid having the team come apart at the seams. Dallas is 39-21, fifth in the ridiculously tough Western Conference.

The team was already light on chemistry, with a significant number of last year’s contributors gone, replaced by new faces such as Rondo and Amar’e Stoudemire. But even more significantly, a team with a feuding coach and point guard will have little shot of upending the likes of Golden State or Houston in April.

So Mavs fans and players had better hope that Rondo and Carlisle can put aside their differences for now and work toward the common good of the team, and worry about next year when it comes.

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