On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that they expect Rajon Rondo to be sidelined for at least the next 6-8 weeks with a fracture of his right thumb that he suffered in practice earlier in the day.
Rondo has served as the Lakers’ backup point guard for the past two seasons, and while his on-court production has been disappointing, he has been a great vocal leader on the bench, and during a conference call with reporters Monday, Danny Green said . He hopes Rondo will continue to be a dominant voice on the sidelines as he heals his injury.
“It is never a good sign when some of your players get hurt,” Green said. “When he’s aggressive, he makes plays for us and for our team, when he scores more than 10 points, you know the statistics, you know the record for us, so we need him to get off the bench and give us a little spark. But I know that he will be on the sidelines for us, taking off our asses and letting our youth know, and also ‘Bron, me and AD, what he sees and the adjustments we must make. ”
Green said Rondo seemed to be in good shape, head coach Frank Vogel echoed.
“We were all very impressed with the appearance of his body,” said Vogel. “It was clear that he struggled through quarantine to stay in good shape.”
If the initial timeline for Rondo is true, the last thing that will return is the second round of the NBA playoffs. While many things can change in two months, Vogel still hopes that Rondo will play a big role for the Lakers in the postseason.
“Losing Rajon is a great loss for our team, but we hope Rajon will be part of our playoff career,” Vogel said, adding that although Rondo will come out of the bubble to undergo surgery and begin his rehabilitation, the Lakers are looking forward to seeing him on the court again.
“We are very confident that he can come back and be an important factor in our playoff career,” said Vogel.
Until then, Vogel will be forced to work with what he has, and what he has is not bad.
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While there is no one on the roster who can do exactly what Rondo did, they do have some players on the roster who are capable of delivering the ball, and Vogel is especially interested to see what Dion Waiters can bring to the team in that role.
“More will be needed in that regard [playmaking] from Alex (Caruso) and Quinn Cook, ”said Vogel. “We have the ability to use our greats like Kuz, and in particular we have the ability to mention him, handle and start a crime. But I also like the prospects of seeing what Dion Waiters can do.
“We have two really good basketball players that we add to the end of our season that do different things, but just as important, with JR (Smith) able to shoot from the perimeter and be a great catch-and-shoot player, and Dion has the ability to make plays off the rebound. Losing Rondo puts more need in Dion’s skill set. I hope to see what he can do more as we get into the games, but all those guys will take over. “
The waiters haven’t played much in the past few seasons due to a combination of injuries and suspensions, but when he has played, he has shown that he can be a prolific scorer largely due to his ability to handle the ball. The most recent example of that came when the Miami Heat saw the Clippers in January.
In 17 minutes against the Clippers, Waiters scored 14 points, including eight points in the fourth quarter, in 4-9 shots from behind the arc. It was the first of three games he played this season.
The waiters’ long time off the court raised concerns about his conditioning initially, so much so that the Lakers originally wanted to see him get replays in the G-League before he adapted for them. Now it seems Waiters is up to date with the rest of the team.
“It looks pretty good,” Green said. “He and JR have been shooting the ball well. The boys look good. No one is out of shape. They look good, they do well, and they learn the system pretty quickly. ”
Green echoed that Waiters can help fill the void left by Rondo due to his ability to handle the ball. However, in addition to the Waiters handles, you can shoot from almost anywhere on the floor. The same cannot be said for Rondo, who made just 34.2% of his jump shot attempts this season, including 32.8% of his 3-point attempts.
Waiters’ skill set will allow him to play with a few different units, but will be more valuable in the second unit, where he will likely play alongside Alex Caruso. After the year that Lakers fans have had, nothing would be better than watching Waiters and Caruso lock Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams in the postseason.
That may sound like a joke, but they’ve both had great games against the Clippers.
17 more days
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