The Rajon Rondo Era, Dallas edition, has started as well as anyone could have hoped.
A win on Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs was illustrative of why the Mavericks made the gamble to trade last week for the former Boston Celtics All-Star.
A team allowing more than 102 points per game, 24th in the league, held the defending champions to 93 in the win. Rondo scored only six points on 3-for-11 shooting as Dallas scored 99, 11 short of their NBA-best rate. But his creativity (nine assists) and defence (two steals, seven rebounds) made a big difference.
It also helped that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were all out for San Antonio.
The point is that Rondo, brought in to address a glaring weakness for the Mavericks, did just that in his first game.
He could pair almost perfectly with Monta Ellis in the Dallas back court. Ellis is a notoriously awful defender, but he is one of the quickest players in the league and a scoring machine.
Rondo is a poor shooter, but he has been one of the most creative distributors and best defending guards in the league for nearly a decade now.
They are both very smart players who likely can figure out how to complement each other’s talents.
It was a risk to toss the Rondo wrench into the league’s most efficient offence, but it was a risk well-taken because of the potential of a considerable upside.
In the relentless uphill climb that is the Western Conference, it looks like the Mavericks made the correct choice.
jraymond@thenational.ae
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