In August 2021, Rondo was laid off by the Memphis Grizzlies and officially entered the free market.
In order to continue to achieve greatness, he chose to reach a basic salary of $2.64 million for 1 year with the Lakers and returned to Los Angeles to assist James.
After the contract was finalized, many people thought that this was a cooperation that was beneficial to both parties.
For Rondo, he could chase his third championship ring.
For the Lakers, the bench solves the problem of lack of ball handlers, and James can get more rest time.
However, it is a pity that the second cooperation between Rondo and the Lakers has not been able to rub out the imaginary spark.
Playing in 18 regular season games, he averaged 16.1 minutes, only 3.1 points and 3.7 assists, shooting 32.4% from the field and shooting as low as 26.7% from three-point range, attracting a large number of extreme fans.
Rondo, who re-cooperated with James, did not play the performance of the championship-winning season, and the decline in attack and defense was extremely obvious.
So in December, in order to avoid taxes, the Lakers management chose to trade him to the Cavaliers.
After coming to the Cavaliers, Rondo has now played 21 games, more than the number of games he has played for the Lakers this season.
Averaging 19.4 minutes on the floor, he averaged 6.2 points, 4.9 assists and 39.7 percent from three-point range.
Today, in the win over the Bucks, Rondo got 6 points, 13 assists and 1 turnover, including a season high in assists.
Yes, you read that right, he is "coming back to life" again.
The stunning personal performance, along with the veteran Lefu, could not help but praise Rondo, saying:
"He's been helping the team, he's been supervising us, he's pushing us to get ready for the play-offs.".
Two different performances in the same season.
Rondo was seen as a burden in the Lakers, but after coming to the Cavaliers, he became a thigh, why?
To put it bluntly, it is still a matter of ball distribution.
Rondo is a very pure point guard, but in the Lakers, but because of Jianway, he often can't touch the ball after playing, and even has to stand outside the three-point line as his most unfamiliar fixed-point pitcher, the power is naturally greatly reduced.
But unlike the Cavaliers, only Garland can dominate the ball inside the team, and the bench lacks a defender who can connect the attack.
In this case, the arrival of Rondo, like sending charcoal in the snow, can naturally return to normal.
Competitive sports are like this, the stars are blindly stacked, and the premise of success is that they need to establish a chemical reaction between each other.
The Lakers in basketball, the greater Paris in football, are the best examples of the lack of chemistry...