The Rajon Rondo issue in Dallas has long been a foregone conclusion and while many placed the blame on Rondo's inability to get along with head coach Rick Carlisle, there's one man who praised him for trying.
That man is none other than the team owner himself, Mark Cuban.
Cuban spoke to Zach Lowe via The Lowe Post on the Rondo episode and bared some interesting things, one of which is that the Mavericks were not entirely sold on the idea at first and that it all boiled down to a coin flip.
Despite the fact that most teams were after the veteran guard, Rondo did have some things that the Mavericks were wary of. One was that he didn't really have a jump shot and that he wanted the ball in his hands most of the time. Just the same, those things would have hurt the Mavericks but at that point, why not take the risk.
So in the end, the relationship didn't exactly pan out well. Rondo couldn't fit into the system of Carlisle and ended up packing. But unlike some headcase players, Rondo did try to make a go at it. Cuban singles out how Rondo tried to work his way into the Dallas system and that alone drew praises from the team owner who has not been shy about sharing his thoughts on people (think DeAndre Jordan once more).
As things stand now, the Mavericks have tried to put up a decent team which has sorely fallen among the Western Conference favorites. They find themselves landing the overlooked players, even though the team doesn't look as talented as the other teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, and the Memphis Grizzlies.
Just the same, the Mavericks are expected to be up there fighting. They still have Dirk Nowitzki and a cast made up of Chandler Parsons (who hopefully will be healthy soon), Deron Williams, and Wes Matthews. They may not be the frontliners in the NBA today but these guys can surely play; so don't count the Mavericks completely out of it just yet.
