The Los Angeles Clippers made the surprising decision to move Lou Williams, the longest-tenured member of the team, away at the NBA's trade deadline last week. The deal brought back Rajon Rondo and sent Williams to the Atlanta Hawks.

“It sucks,” Clippers president Lawrence Frank said in a Zoom interview with members of the media following the trade. “We didn’t want to trade Lou and Lou didn’t want to be traded.”

Frank and the Clippers brought Williams to Los Angeles four years ago in the trade that sent Chris Paul to Houston. Williams said he seriously considered retirement following the deal. He sold his LA house after the Los Angeles Lakers traded him to the Houston Rockets, only to be shipped right back to LA four months later. Then-head coach Doc Rivers was able to convince him to make the Clippers home, and that's exactly what he did for the next three and a half seasons.

Beyond the two Sixth Man of the Year Awards, the scoring prowess, and the lasting memories, Lou Williams helped develop a gritty culture in LA during a time when the team was recovering from years of Lob City failures. They traded Chris Paul. They traded Blake Griffin. They traded Jamal Crawford. They let DeAndre Jordan and JJ Redick walk in free agency.

Still, the team remained competitive and a force to deal with every single night. Lou Williams was at the forefront of that.

“Lou, if you think about four years ago, both us as an organization and Lou, were kind of starting over and just it merged together,” Frank said of Williams. “Lou gave us swagger, he was our soul, and he gave us a lot of scoring, he had a lot of buckets. Over the course of these past four years, most of all our best moments, Lou is a major, major part of.

“He was a great connector and he doesn’t get enough credit for the calmness that he brought to the group, the leadership, and the mentorship. You talk to our young guys, so many of them will credit Lou, in terms of learning the NBA. There’s a lot of substance with Lou. Lou made a great sacrifice this year because his role was tweaked a little bit and especially in a contract year he was willing to do whatever Ty asked him to do. Defensively he played very, very well.”

Lou Williams, Clippers, Sixth Man
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

So why did Frank and the Clippers feel it necessary to swap him, a 34-year-old guard, with 35-year-old Rajon Rondo?

“The trade wasn’t about what Lou wasn’t. Our biggest team need we felt was we needed an orchestrator. We needed someone who can really help elevate everyone’s game and Lou is one of our better playmakers, but Rondo brings a skill set we didn’t have. The unfortunate reality is, in order to receive you have to give, and Lou’s a valuable, valuable player.

“Obviously the salaries match and that’s the cap machinations, but it sucks. He’s a special, special guy. We love Lou, we love his mom, Janice, and you’re heartbroken doing it. There’s no way to say it other than it really sucks.”

Under head coach Tyronn Lue, the Clippers really changed the way their offense was built. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were put in positions to succeed and create for themselves or their teammates. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Clippers have the second-best half-court offense in the NBA. If you've watched them play, you've seen just how many open looks the team generates. According to NBA.com/Stats, 56.6 percent of the shots the Clippers have taken this season have been deemed open (closest defender four-to-six feet away) or wide open (closest defender six or more feet away).

The front office, however, saw areas to improve upon and acted on them. Sure, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are fantastic scorers and playmakers, but without a true point guard on the roster, every possession essentially started and ended with the duo. With Rajon Rondo in the fold, the Clippers are hoping to mix it up a little more.

“Look, this group is the second-best half-court offense in the league, so it's not like it was broke,” Frank said. “It was actually operating at a high level. The one thing we saw is that Kawhi and Paul were at the start of virtually all our plays. Like, they were the initiators.

“Now, they could be in positions where they’ll get to be able to close and finish some of the plays, so instead of starting the chain, they can be at the end of the chain and able to drive closeouts as opposed to always being the guy that has to get two to the ball, move it, so I think he’ll lighten their load. Those two guys are outstanding playmakers, and I think Rajon is another guy who can put pressure on the paint, which he’ll either get to the rim or he’ll force two to the ball and start the chain of events and keep the ball moving.”

Rajon Rondo, Clippers

Following the Clippers' loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the 2020 Western Conference Semifinals, Kawhi Leonard said the team collectively needed to get smarter. From the players and even the coaching staff, guys had to improve their basketball IQ.

The Clippers believe they've done just that after signing proven, playoff veterans and former NBA champions Serge Ibaka and Rajon Rondo.

“I think it’s really important. I think it was one of the reasons why we added Serge. Another guy who has won a championship with deep playoff experience, Rajon laying on top of that with two rings.

“Just think about our last experience in the playoffs where we’re up 3-1 and mental toughness … this is critical,” Lawrence Frank said as he pointed to his head. “Everyone talks about the physical tools, but the mental part is huge. And understanding kind of different moments and being able to see it in real time, not after the fact. Rondo, he’s a force. He’s a force and I think he’s really gonna fit. We really feel like he’s a guy who really can help elevate the group, and let’s be blunt, it’s not like Rajon’s 25 years old, so it’s not like he’s gonna be playing 35 minutes a night. But with what he’s doing, he will maximize it, and not just on the court. He’ll be powerful in the locker room as well because of that experience.”

The addition of Rondo only makes Tyronn Lue's job harder. Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Terance Mann all have cases to start for the Clippers and all bring a bit of a different element than the other.

Oh, and the Clippers have yet to strike on the buyout market as well. That's something Lawrence Frank says the team continues to be “aggressive” in exploring.

Clippers, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard

“We love our roster, but we'll be and we have been aggressive. Players, especially in the buyout market, they want to make sure where they go, they can definitely play. So there's certain positions of strength where people look at it and say, ‘I love it, see your situation, love the fact that you're competing for a championship, but I don't necessarily see a pathway to play.'

“And there are others where they say, ‘You know what? I get it. I may not be starting. I may not be the backup. But I want to be part of a roster.' And I know in a deep playoff run, in any given game, Ty may have to dial up a different skill set. Whether it's point-of-attack defense, whether it's having another big, whether it's adding another wing. We'll continue to look at all of those things. We'll be aggressive filling them, but it also has to be the right person. Because if that person isn't in the rotation, can that person sit and be okay. Because anyone can play and be a good teammate. But if you're not playing, we want to make sure we have really good chemistry in the locker room, and that's a sanctuary. We just want to make sure that whoever we add there fits with the whole team vibe.”

The roster is essentially complete, and like it or not, this is pretty much the Clippers team they'll be taking into the playoffs. They have enough to compete for a championship, but as has been said all season: they'll only go as far as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George take them.