The Atlanta Hawks have agreed to trade Rajon Rondo to the LA Clippers for former Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams and two future second-round picks.
Can Rondo help solve LA's point guard problems? How did Atlanta do in the deal?
Kevin Pelton hands out trade grades for both teams.
The deal
Clippers get: Rajon Rondo
Hawks get: Lou Williams, two future second-round picks and cash
Get more trade grades from Pelton here
LA Clippers: C
The Clippers are betting big on "Playoff Rondo" helping make the difference for them this spring. Starting after the Clippers' upset loss to the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2020 playoffs, star Kawhi Leonard has lamented the team's lack of playmaking. He's got a point. The Clippers rank 24th in the percentage of their field goals that are assisted at 58%. (Then again, maybe assists are overrated: For all the talk of their ball movement, the league-leading Utah Jazz sit one spot behind the Clippers.)
The real question is whether Rondo is the right player to deliver that playmaking. As much as Rondo protests the Playoff Rondo sobriquet, he could make a much stronger case by actually producing during the regular season. Coming off a playoff run where he averaged 24.8 minutes per game for the champion Los Angeles Lakers, posting 13.0 points and 9.6 assists per 36 minutes while making 40% of his 3-point attempts, Rondo has predictably struggled in less important games with the Hawks.
In fact, this has been the worst performance of Rondo's career. His 9.5 points per 36 minutes is a career low, and his 8.5 assists per 36 minutes would be his fewest since 2007-08. At 35, it's fair to wonder whether Rondo is finished as an effective player -- except we've thought this before during the regular season and he has managed to turn back the clock come postseason.
If Rondo is making enough of his 3s (and he is shooting 38% on limited attempts this season) and giving effort on defense, his length and unparalleled feel for the game still make him a productive contributor. We won't find out until May whether the Clippers have won this bet.
The other gamble the Clippers are taking is that they no longer need Williams. Though he played on Wednesday, scoring 16 points in 17 minutes as the Clippers blew out the San Antonio Spurs, the symbolic end to Williams' fine career with the Clippers came two nights earlier. They were outscored by 11 points in Williams' nine first-half minutes of action by, of all teams, the Hawks. Luke Kennard, who's been in and out of the rotation, took Williams' spot after halftime and scored 20 points in 18 minutes as the Clippers rallied from a deficit as large as 22 for an improbable win.
To his credit, Williams seemed to buy in this season after friction between the holdover Clippers and newcomers Leonard and Paul George in 2019-20. However, their arrival and the addition of Kennard meant Williams' best skill -- creating offense at high volume -- was no longer as necessary, particularly looking ahead to the playoffs.
That all said, it's incredible to think that the draft picks in this trade are going from the Clippers to the Hawks. Williams is in the last year of what's been one of the NBA's best bargain contracts, whereas Atlanta surely appreciated taking a mulligan on Rondo's disastrous deal -- which is fully guaranteed for 2021-22.
To justify the cost, the Clippers are going to need Rondo to play like he did in the 2020 playoffs. That's not a bet I'd be willing to make.
Atlanta Hawks: A
Conversely, this deal looks like an enormous win for the Hawks. Granted, they look like a safer bet to reach the postseason after an eight-game winning streak under new head coach Nate McMillan that came to an end with the Clippers' comeback. Still, the problem with Playoff Rondo is you have to actually, you know, get to the playoffs first. Williams should help Atlanta in that regard.
In theory, signing Rondo along with Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari was supposed to make the Hawks' offense more competent with All-Star point guard Trae Young on the bench. Instead, the Atlanta attack continued to crumble with Rondo at the controls. Per Cleaning the Glass, lineups with Rondo ranked in the 12th percentile leaguewide in offensive rating, managing 11.9 fewer points per 100 possessions than with Rondo on the bench.
Having Bogdanovic healthy and Gallinari playing more like the valuable reserve the Hawks reasonably expected has helped during the post-coaching-change surge. Williams can contribute too, provided he takes advantage of the fouls drawn by Young at the start of the first and third periods. Quietly, Williams' free throw rate has dropped from .36 attempts per shot attempt last season to .28 so far this year, a big factor in his efficiency dwindling.
More importantly, shedding Rondo's 2021-22 guaranteed salary gives Atlanta more flexibility this summer. Assuming Kris Dunn picks up his $5 million player option, the Hawks will have about $35 million in spending power under the tax line to re-sign restricted free agent John Collins and fill out the roster.
Getting draft picks on top of that is simply gravy for Atlanta.