Grizzlies To Buy Out Rajon Rondo, Rondo Expected To Sign With Lakers

[RealGM Wiretap]

The Memphis Grizzlies and veteran point guard Rajon Rondo have reached agreement on a buyout. Memphis will waive Rondo and he'll become an unrestricted free agent upon clearing waivers.

Upon clearing waivers, the Los Angles Lakers are the frontrunners to sign Rondo. 2021-22 will be Rondo's 16th NBA season. He played a big part in the Lakers winning the 2020 NBA Finals.

The Grizzlies acquired Rondo in a trade where they sent Eric Bledsoe to the LA Clippers for Rondo, Patrick Beverley and Daniel Oturu. Memphis subsequently traded Beverley to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Jarrett Culver and Juancho Hernangomez.

Memphis will still need to waive or trade at least three more players to get into regular season roster compliance.

Via Shams Charania/The Athletic

[MitchB3]

Lakers: We need Rondo back.

Rondo: You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.

[tigerae]

Lakers: We need Rondo back.

Rondo: You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.

LOL

Good pickup imo.

[Scalabrine]

Lakers: We need Rondo back.

Rondo: You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.

LOL

Good pickup imo.

Gasol/Howard
Davis/Anthony/Ariza
James/Bazemore/Ellington
Horton-Tucker/Nunn/Monk
Westbrook/Rondo

Lots of talent and IQ on this team but who is gonna space the floor? Who is gonna be guarding the other teams opposing best guard? A lot of the professional analysts love the moves they made, and I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work, but this roster has soo many holes!

[Hans1984]

The old get older. Welcome back !

[Pickled Prunes]

Lakers: We need Rondo back.

Rondo: You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.

LOL

Good pickup imo.

Gasol/Howard
Davis/Anthony/Ariza
James/Bazemore/Ellington
Horton-Tucker/Nunn/Monk
Westbrook/Rondo

Lots of talent and IQ on this team but who is gonna space the floor? Who is gonna be guarding the other teams opposing best guard? A lot of the professional analysts love the moves they made, and I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work, but this roster has soo many holes!

There are definitely some lineups to avoid.... Like Westbrook and any other non-shooter. Also, Westbrook, Rondo and Lebron are all clearly at their best with the ball in their hands. Only time will tell.

[Camping Fan]

Lakers should have kept Rondo and Howard to begin with for the continuity

[Rashidi]

Lakers: We need Rondo back.

Rondo: You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.

LOL

Good pickup imo.

Gasol/Howard
Davis/Anthony/Ariza
James/Bazemore/Ellington
Horton-Tucker/Nunn/Monk
Westbrook/Rondo

Lots of talent and IQ on this team but who is gonna space the floor? Who is gonna be guarding the other teams opposing best guard? A lot of the professional analysts love the moves they made, and I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work, but this roster has soo many holes!

Doubt THT starts, they need a shooter and he is not.

PG: Westbrook, Nunn, Rondo
SG: Monk, Ellington, Bazemore (and Nunn)
SF: LeBron, THT, (and Ariza/Bazemore)
PF: Davis, Melo, Ariza
C: Gasol, Howard, Davis

Is my guess. Starting SG likely decided in camp.

It's not a given that Rondo will be in the rotation given the year he had. THT is essentially a Point Forward so playing Nunn and another shooter next to him makes sense.

[Rashidi]

LOL

Good pickup imo.

Gasol/Howard
Davis/Anthony/Ariza
James/Bazemore/Ellington
Horton-Tucker/Nunn/Monk
Westbrook/Rondo

Lots of talent and IQ on this team but who is gonna space the floor? Who is gonna be guarding the other teams opposing best guard? A lot of the professional analysts love the moves they made, and I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work, but this roster has soo many holes!

There are definitely some lineups to avoid.... Like Westbrook and any other non-shooter. Also, Westbrook, Rondo and Lebron are all clearly at their best with the ball in their hands. Only time will tell.

Rondo was essentially LeBron's backup in 2019, with LeBron checking back in at SF with him to end the half. LeBron can play off-ball and as a post threat so the fit with Rondo is fine. You can't play Westbrook and Rondo together though (he's not nearly the same post threat as James).

It's also worth noting this is probably the year LeBron relinquishes some on-ball responsibility anyway, or else they never would have brought Russ in.

[donaldtrump_00]

I'm not a laker by any stretch or a LeBron fan period. But this term everyone crazy about using today is "fit" you don't need to fit when you have the best players on the court. I'm more in here to let everyone know LeBron still hasn't changed since 2010. Build and stack the deck. Whether there older in age or super young. There a superteam non the less. All this just to beat kd kyrie and Harden. Its at the point I'm hoping for another injury ridden season to the top teams so other teams can get a chance. It's not fair.if it wasn't for these super teams we don't know who would go all the way. I'm far from a person to wish a injury on another person. But this bs needs to stop. The Lakers are built like a dynasty. I don't care if there older. Them old players are or were superstars not long ago and Allstars. They know when to turn it up. Only lakers and Brooklyn can defeat each other. No other team comes close.

[fuller4379]

Team Geritol. This team would have been good about 8 years ago when the players were in their prime.

[D21]

Team Geritol. This team would have been good about 8 years ago when the players were in their prime.

But there would not have been enough money to get all of these guys, especially at the C spot

[Pickled Prunes]

Gasol/Howard
Davis/Anthony/Ariza
James/Bazemore/Ellington
Horton-Tucker/Nunn/Monk
Westbrook/Rondo

Lots of talent and IQ on this team but who is gonna space the floor? Who is gonna be guarding the other teams opposing best guard? A lot of the professional analysts love the moves they made, and I'm sure they'll find a way to make it work, but this roster has soo many holes!

There are definitely some lineups to avoid.... Like Westbrook and any other non-shooter. Also, Westbrook, Rondo and Lebron are all clearly at their best with the ball in their hands. Only time will tell.

Rondo was essentially LeBron's backup in 2019, with LeBron checking back in at SF with him to end the half. LeBron can play off-ball and as a post threat so the fit with Rondo is fine. You can't play Westbrook and Rondo together though (he's not nearly the same post threat as James).

It's also worth noting this is probably the year LeBron relinquishes some on-ball responsibility anyway, or else they never would have brought Russ in.

In 2019 Rondo was #14 in ORtg out of 14 qualified Lakers. His numbers were a little inflated because Lebron missed so much time but he was really bad. LAL were hard to watch that season.

[objectivefan]

OK. I get it, they like having many playmakers around

but where is the shooting?

[Rashidi]

There are definitely some lineups to avoid.... Like Westbrook and any other non-shooter. Also, Westbrook, Rondo and Lebron are all clearly at their best with the ball in their hands. Only time will tell.

Rondo was essentially LeBron's backup in 2019, with LeBron checking back in at SF with him to end the half. LeBron can play off-ball and as a post threat so the fit with Rondo is fine. You can't play Westbrook and Rondo together though (he's not nearly the same post threat as James).

It's also worth noting this is probably the year LeBron relinquishes some on-ball responsibility anyway, or else they never would have brought Russ in.

In 2019 Rondo was #14 in ORtg out of 14 qualified Lakers. His numbers were a little inflated because Lebron missed so much time but he was really bad. LAL were hard to watch that season.

The Lakers were hard to watch the year they won the championship???

ORTG is not really intended as an individual measurement tool (low usage / high FG% players like Tyson Chandler and Kyle Korver are efficient but someone has to actually run the offense IRL and rack up turnovers).

LeBron played 67 of 71 games in 2019. Missed a lot of time?

Edit: Apologies if not referring to the season as 2020 lead to some confusion.

[tigerae]

OK. I get it, they like having many playmakers around

but where is the shooting?

Stats last year:
Bazemore shot a career best 40% from 3s.
Nunn shot 38% from 3s.
Ariza shot 35% from 3s.
Melo shot a career best 40% from 3s.
Rondo shot a career best 43% from 3s.
Ellington shot 42% from 3s.
Monk shot 40% from 3s.

With LeBron, AD and Westbrook getting a ton of attention, those players should be able to get a lot of open shots next season. I think that will allow them to shoot even better but even if they make their shots similarly to what they did last year they will be fine in the shooting department.