The subject of the 29-year-old point guard isn’t new to the team or its fans—the Lakers tried to trade for the Boston Celtics star in December, but lost out to the Dallas Mavericks.
But as the Mavericks ultimately discovered, a Rondo in their midst turned out to be disastrous, with a parting of the ways reportedly occurring in the midst of the playoffs' first round.
And with that calamity still fresh in the public conscious, the attention turns from Texas to a team coming off its worst season in franchise history, with splintered opinions about Rondo’s future candidacy extending inside the beltway of the Lakers’ organization itself.
As Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding writes, there is still some internal support for signing the free agent during the offseason, but the picture is becoming murkier:
But what should be made clear, according to team sources, is that (Jim) Buss is not the believer he was earlier in the season when it comes to Rondo, and (Mitch) Kupchak is toting enough healthy skepticism that he sees Rondo as value only at a certain low price.
Thus no one should expect the Lakers to recycle those old "STAY" billboards for Dwight Howard, flipping them over to be barefaced welcome mats for Rondo this offseason, no matter how much he wants to come.
Indeed, a welcome of any sort is bound to be guarded at best. This is after all, a team whose recent failures caused it to look toward the future and a rebuild predicated on youth and vitality—not aging stars in decline.
Why Rondo?
The most prominent advocacy is the one voiced by a ghost from championships past—Kobe Bryant. The five-time NBA champion wasn’t willing t...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
