If you are wondering what happened to Rajon Rondo after halftime during the New Orleans Pelicans' critical must-win homestand against the Golden State Warriors, it is not a strategic line-up adjustment or (worse) a tiff with another head coach in the middle of a playoff game. Rather, it was an old familiar foe.
Head Coach Alvin Gentry says Rajon Rondo injured his groin which prevented him from playing in the 2nd half.
— Daniel Sallerson (@dsallerson) May 9, 2018
Rondo has been bothered by a groin injury for a while now which began after he tweaked it on a preseason game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He then had to undergo a sports hernia surgery shortly which sidelined him for several weeks.
Since his return, the 6-foot-1 point guard has had an up-and-down regular season with subpar stretches that alternate each month before picking it up from March until the rest of the year with near-double-double averages of almost ten points and ten assists as well as five rebounds per outing.
Many felt that Rondo was finally rounding into playoff form and proving that his one-year, $3.3 million contract was not only a brilliant gamble for Pelicans general manager Dell Demps but also one of the best bargains in a league rife with albatross contracts.
Sure enough, Rondo parlayed his regular season momentum into 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 13.3 assists per game in a four-game sweep of the higher-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. He then followed it with a five-game average of 9.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 11.4 assists, and two steals nightly, against the Warriors.
Prior to his second-half absence, the game was close at 59-56 in favor of the Warriors, until Kevin Durant and company blew the game wide open and never looked back.
Rondo's free agency is one of the three biggest concerns for the Pelicans going into the offseason – DeMarcus Cousins' is tops on the list followed by their supporting cast on whether augmenting it or retaining the exact same core.
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