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Rajon Rondo is preparing to make his awaited debut with the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday and he recently spoke about joining forces with Kawhi Leonard in a sit-down with ESPN's Rachel Nichols. While speaking about Leonard, Rondo shared that he was surprised to see how talented Leonard is as a passer.
1-on-1 with Rajon Rondo, who plans to make his Clippers debut tomorrow…in a game against the Lakers. We discuss switching from one side of the LA rivalry to the other, plus how Kawhi has already surprised him: pic.twitter.com/9Kbyumhi5P
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 3, 2021
Acquiring Rondo at the trade deadline was obviously a move for the Clippers to add someone else who can orchestrate the offense. Rondo has been a pass-first point guard his entire career and he's won championships with the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers playing the way he does.
Throughout his career, Rondo has averaged 8.1 assists per game, including five seasons where he recorded double-digit assists per game. Seeing that Rondo knows what it takes to be a cerebral passer, he knows that Leonard is more than capable of dishing out assists to his teammates.
On the surface, Leonard's stats don't show a player who is able to get his teammates involved consistently. When Leonard was with the San Antonio Spurs, Greg Popovich didn't have Leonard handle the ball as much as he does with the Clippers now.
In the past two seasons, Leonard has upped his career-high to 4.9 assists per game and sported a career-best 33 percent usage last season. Besides Leonard, Paul George has been asked to do a lot when it comes to operating the offense in a smooth manner. Even though Rondo is being brought in to create more flow in the offense, he's confident in Leonard's ability to move the ball when necessary too.
