Lakers Dealt Blow With Rondo's Broken Thumb
The NBA is starting to see teams fly into the Sunshine State in order to get ramped up for the season’s restart, which is slated to get underway with exhibition type games toward the end of next week before the seeding games begin on July 30. We’ve seen several players either opt out or be ruled out after testing positive in the past week for the coronavirus. There are some guys that we’re still waiting to get to the bubble, like Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets, who had tested positive in Serbia and is on the way to Orlando. On Sunday, the league saw their first injury take place inside the bubble that could do some damage to one of the top contenders for a NBA crown this season.
Rajon Rondo of the Lakers suffered a broken thumb in practice Sunday night and is expected to miss six to eight weeks with the injury. He is slated to undergo surgery later this week: with the current timetable, he wouldn’t be back until the end of August or sometime in September. This season, Rondo was averaging 7.1 points, three rebounds and five assists per game while playing in 48 of the Lakers’ 63 games this season. He was shooting 41.8 percent from the floor, including 32.8 percent from three-point range, and only 65.9 percent at the charity stripe on the year. Rondo started just three games on the year and logged an average of 20.5 minutes per game.
This marks the third time since signing with the Lakers prior to the 2018-19 season that Rondo has dealt with hand injuries. He missed time in 2018-19 after requiring surgery for a fractured third metacarpal on his right hand. Later in the year, he again was out after needing surgery on a torn ligament in his ring finger on his right hand.
The injury is a big blow for the Lakers, who are trying to get by with a revamped backcourt group in the restart. Los Angeles was already without Avery Bradley, who was starting at the point most of the year, as he opted out last month due to family concerns. That means LeBron James will be the default primary ball handler, though bench guys like Alex Caruso and Quinn Cook should end up getting more run in the interim. There is a lot of shuffling around with the backcourt for the purple and gold as the team signed JR Smith to take Bradley’s roster spot for the restart. Dion Waiters signed with the team on March 6 and hadn’t seen game action with the team.
The lack of chemistry among the backcourt members is going to put more pressure on James and Anthony Davis to shoulder the scoring load for the Lakers. In addition to that, Los Angeles won’t be able to sign a player to replace Rondo. The injury replacement factor was for players that chose to opt out of playing in the bubble. Since Rondo’s injury took place at a practice in Orlando, he is ineligible to be replaced, thereby taking a little bit of depth and veteran leadership out of the mix for Frank Vogel’s squad.
Los Angeles is fortunate as they enter the eight-game seeding contest slate with a 5.5-game lead over the Clippers for the top record in the Western Conference. That gives them some cushion to work with as they try to get their new-look rotation into some semblance of cohesiveness. How the team works around losing Rondo’s efforts as a floor general for the seeding games and likely at least the opening round of the playoffs as a best-case scenario is going to determine what kind of chance they have at maintaining their title hopes.
