Rudy Gay Prodded Rajon Rondo To Agree On The One Year, $10 Million Deal With The Kings

Rajon Rondo will be a Sacramento King next season. According to Yahoo’s Marc J. Spears, the mercurial point guard agreed to a one-year contract at $10 million, allowing him to again be a free agent next summer when the cap jumps.

More importantly, It’ll give him a year to repair his image, which took a massive hit after getting dealt to Dallas this past season.

The signing isn’t a surprise. The Kings were pegged as players for Rondo from the onset of free agency. After his on-court production nosedived during the 2014-15 campaign (a career-low 12.4 PER and the fewest points per game since his rookie year), his free agency this summer has been marked by how little interest he’s really seen from other teams (e.g. a simple “courtesy” phone call from the Lakers). So his one-year deal is an attempt to repair that image.

And now he joins the most dysfunctional organization in the NBA. Sacramento’s best player, DeMarcus Cousins reportedly wants out, and who can blame him after coach George Karl staged a coup to remove DMC from the team. The coach’s duplicitous dealings — purportedly gauging other team’s interest in a trade for Cousins behind ownership’s back — obviously enraged team owner Vivek Ranadivé, who in turn has looked to find a way out of the three years and $10 million Karl has left on his current deal.

Ranadivé has proven to be uneven during his tenure at the top in Sacramento. After coming into power with widespread acclaim following the departure of the odious Maloof brothers, he’s since fired coach Mike Malone. It came despite a 9-6 start to the 2014-15 season before Cousins took an extended absence with viral meningitis. So the Kings obviously suffered in the win-loss column; except, Malone was let go shortly after Boogie’s return, and then Ranadivé played played footsie with interim hire, Tyrone Corbin, before sneakily announcing the hiring of Karl after this February’s All-Star break. On top of all that, Pete D’Alessandro was oddly displaced as decision maker when Vivek bowed to fan angst at the Malone termination and hired favorite Vlade Divac to oversee basketball operations.

It seems Rondo enters the fold at the behest of his friend, Rudy Gay, too.

Here’s Gay’s recent IG post with Rondo:

The three-year, $19 million agreement Sacramento struck with Marco Bellinelli was also reportedly something Rondo nudged them towards facilitating, an odd bit of agency on Rondo’s part considering he hadn’t yet agreed to terms.

Add Darren Collison’s apparent frustration with the addition of Rondo, and this is a powder keg of egos, money and a management group who has misfired so extensively some might even wonder if the Maloof’s weren’t as bad as many thought (they were).

Sacramento could have done worse, but it’ll be fascinating to see if the current personnel can ever be forged into a winning team by Karl. Rondo had his issues with Rick Carlisle in Dallas last season, but the Mavs coach never had the baggage Karl brings with him to Sacramento, nor the distrust with his top player. Now Rondo, a difficult player to manage even winning a title with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in Boston, has been wedged into the middle of everything.

(Marc J. Spears)