The LA Clippers acquired veteran baseman Rajon Rondo of the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for former Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams, it was announced Thursday.
The Clippers will also send two future second-round draft picks and cash considerations into the deal.
Rondo, 35, gives the Clippers championship experience, leadership, and basketball IQ as a home base. He returns to Los Angeles, where he won his second NBA title last season with the Lakers before joining the Hawks in rebuilding with a two-year, $ 15 million contract.
Rondo also reunites with Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, who was an assistant to the Boston Celtics from 2011 to 2013, when Rondo was with the Celtics.
Speaking Thursday night, Lue called Rondo “more or less my project” while he was in Boston.
“It’s intense, that’s what we need,” Lue added. “He’s tough. He understands the game. And he respects people and tells the truth. That was the most important thing in Boston, it was being honest with him and telling him the truth and staying real with him.”
Lue said you don’t know if Rondo will start or leave the bench.
“We need to have them all, keep them all healthy,” Lue said after the Clippers beat the Spurs 98-85 Thursday night. “I’m just trying to see what works. It’s going to take some time. I’m not sure right now.”
Williams has won three of the last six Sixth Man of the Year awards and just surpassed the 15,000 points of his career Wednesday night in the Clippers victory in San Antonio.
During Thursday’s game, Lue said he looked at his bench during a slow start and told his assistants that this is the time when he would like Williams.
“We’ll miss him for everything he brought and not just for basketball,” Lue said. “I just think he was a great person. That’s what I love the most. We all knew he was a great basketball player, but only as a human being and what he represented and how he always raised the morale of the team with everyone in the “That’s all we’re going to miss.”
Clippers winger Paul George described Williams’ change as “a difficult situation.”
“You hate to see these things happen,” George said. “We’re going to miss Lou. The best way to do that, to say goodbye, is to go out and try to win him over. [todo]”.