Cleveland sent reserve Denzel Valentine to the New York Knicks (the Knicks and Lakers swapped some draft rights for a few European players and the Knicks adding some cash considerations) for the thirty-five-year-old Rondo, who averaged three points and three assists off the bench for the Lakers in eighteen games.
Rondo is well past his prime but the hope is that he can still be somewhat productive in increased minutes with the second unit after Darius Garland returns.
Rondo's arrival will hopefully offset some of the lost production from Ricky Rubio's knee injury that cost Rubio the rest of the regular season and left Cleveland with only Kevin Pangos and recent ten-day signee, Brandon Goodwin, as the reserves behind Darius Garland when Garland returns from Covid protocol.
Cleveland is continued to be rumored as interested in Boston guard Dennis Schroeder to continue to improve their backcourt, which took another blow in the Cavaliers win over Indiana when Isaac Okoro was lost for two to three weeks to a sprained elbow.
Schroeder would be an upgrade over the aging Rondo and would bring averages of sixteen points and a bit under five assists a night but would be a rental as he would be a free agent at the end of the season.
The Cavaliers are also consistently mentioned as one of the teams that have been persistent in their pursuit of the Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons but I'm not sure that Philadelphia would be interested in a package that didn't include either Darius Garland or Evan Mobley, which would defeat the purpose of adding Simmons.
No comments:
Post a Comment