16-29 2014-15
6-9 2015-16
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22-38 overall
Darren Collison is not a high quality starting PG no matter how we want to talk ourselves into it. He may or may not be an adequate one, but it depends on you putting a helluva group around him to do the actual winning.
Mind you, Rondo was only marginally better:
29-43 2015-16
The 100% difference remains: Rondo makes bad players better. Collison does not. You want Collison there? Fine. Find a bunch of creative buttkickers who don't need help from their PG. You want to load up on defensive roleplayers and guys who can't help dribbling off their shoe? Better have Rondo there to create shots for them they can't create themselves.
It might be a stretch to call Ben McLemore a defensive roleplayer but he is a guy who can't create for himself and often loses the ball when he tries to do so. And yet, his numbers went down with Rondo as the PG, even in Karl's more uptempo offense. Even comparing his per 36 or per 100 possessions his numbers either stayed the same or got worse. Rondo seemed to help Cousins improve, especially since he assisted on nearly all of his made threes.
I also don't understand the idea that you need more skilled "creative buttkickers that don't need help from their PG" to win with Collison but Rondo will elevate his teammates. With Collison starting the Kings won 37% of their games. With Rondo starting they won 40%. That's a pretty minor statistical difference.
And it's a somewhat misleading one too. I think the vast majority of Kings fans would say that this year's roster has more talent than last years, the season where Collison made most of his starts. And of course last season included the stretch that cost Malone his job after Cousins contracted viral meningitis. For that matter, most games that Rondo started, he had Collison as his backup/backcourt mate. In the games that Collison started this season it had to mean that Rondo was out. So I can't even concede that the 3% difference in winning percentage indicates anything worthwhile when comparing these PGs.
If it was DC that was a free agent and Rondo the player under contract with a reasonable deal I'd be fine with letting Collison walk. But it's Rondo who will be looking for a $15-$18 million deal and I'm still not seeing any real justification for spending that money to bring Rondo back. In fact the only real arguments I can think of for re-signing Rondo are (1) Cousins likes him/wants him back (2) Vlade & Joerger want to reshape the roster around what he does best or (3) in an offseason where every team has $30 million or so to spend the Kings might fail to sign anybody more talented than Rondo.
That last one is the only one that I would give credence to. Given how Joerger has talked about ball movement I doubt he's a huge proponent of an offense built around a ball dominant PG. And Cousins may like Rondo but all I care about (and all I think Boogie ultimately cares about) is winning games and I'm not convinced Rondo helps the team do that. But striking out on all their top free agent targets (maybe guys like Bazemore, Fournier, Batum, Anderson, etc) IS something I fear could happen.
Would that justify a knee-jerk signing of Rondo to a big money deal? I'm not so sure on that.
But I do agree with gunks that it makes little sense to keep Rondo and Collison. Either Rondo walks and DC is the starter or if Rondo is brought back then I think Collison needs to be traded to fix other holes rather than the Kings having the luxury of a high level backup PG for 15 mpg.