So, um, Rajon Rondo, despite not ruling out a return to the Sacramento Kings, doesn’t sound like someone who wants to return to the Sacramento Kings.
As he said on ESPN’s The Jump with Rachel Nichols:
Rajon Rondo said Monday on ESPN’s The Jump that the Kings never jelled as a team last season, and the tension between DeMarcus Cousins and the coaching staff was unlike anything he has experienced in his NBA career.
The 30-year-old point guard, who will be a free agent this offseason, said the Kings “didn’t sacrifice enough for one another” in 2015-16.
“There were too many distractions on and off the court. The organization as a whole, I don’t think was together completely. I think as a team you have to want the best for the next man beside you, and that wasn’t the case with the Sacramento Kings,” he said.
…
“Too much tension. I’ve never witnessed or experienced a thing like that in my 10-year career,” he said.
Again, Rondo didn’t officially rule out returning to the Kings. The situation with the coaching staff, after all, has changed. George Karl is out; Dave Joerger is in. That should help things behind the scenes.
But it’s unclear if the Kings will even want Rondo back. He could cost significantly more than the $9.5 million he earned this past season, and Seth Curry, a restricted free agent, caught fire toward the end of the year. If Joerger wants the Kings to space the floor a bit more—his intentions on that front are unknown—Curry, Darren Collison or another free-agent point guard rank as a better fit than Rondo, even after he put down a career-best 36.5 percent of his triples in 2015-16.
Of course, there could be some contractual and stylistic middle ground for both parties. But for the Kings to even be on Rondo’s radar this summer, assuming they want him back, they first need to prove that the atmosphere is no longer toxic.
