Rick Carlisle on the Rajon Rondo trade: ‘It’s a deal we should have shied away from’

Rajon Rondo doesn’t have to visit Dallas on Monday night. He doesn’t have to hear the boos and he doesn’t have to face the scorn of endless Mavericks fans who are wondering, why, exactly, their team likely gave up a first-round draft pick for 46 games and a misspent postseason for the current Sacramento Kings guard. Rondo, working in the safe confines of the former Arco Arena on Monday night versus the 10-7 Mavs, has it easy.

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That doesn’t mean we all can’t ask ourselves, and the Mavericks, why any of this had to happen.

Tim McMahon discussed as much with Dallas coach Rick Carlisle prior to the Kings/Mavs showdown:

“Listen, we all did everything we could to make it work. It was challenging,” Carlisle told ESPN.com as the Mavs prepare for a reunion with Rondo in Monday’s road game against the Sacramento Kings. “Going back in time, it’s a deal we should have shied away from, for the sake of us and for the sake of him. It’s a deal we shouldn’t have made.

“I think we all realize that now, but when you do a deal like that, you’ve got to do everything possible to make it work. I learned a lot going through the year with him and trying to be creative and use some of his unique abilities. He’s a very talented player, and he’s having a great year this year, which is basically no surprise.”

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The Mavericks, NBA-famously, had the NBA’s top-ranked offense prior to sending Jae Crowder, the much-missed Brandan Wright (who thrived under Carlisle) and a protected first-round pick to Boston for Rondo midway through 2014-15. The team finished the season with the league’s fifth-best offense, a not-unkind ranking, but the scars were obvious as the Mavs headed into the postseason.

Rondo was kicked off the team following Game 2 of the Mavs’ eventual first-round playoff loss to the Houston Rockets. The franchise cited a back injury as the impetus behind Rondo’s indefinite absence, but the writing was on the wall following a heated exchange between Carlisle and Rondo during the first half of that loss.

The Kings, bidding against themselves, signed Rondo to a one-year, $10 million deal during the offseason. Rondo has been a fantasy sports darling in the weeks since 2015-16 opened, averaging 12.4 points, 11 assists, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, but his Kings have also lost two-thirds of their contests to start 2015-16. This may or may not be a statement on Rondo’s impact on a group of players, as the Kings have myriad issues they’re working through, but in spite of the nice stats this has hardly been a warming turnaround for the former Celtic champion.

Carlisle, to his credit, handed some of that over to Kings head man George Karl:

“Anyone who knows Rondo knew he was gonna bounce back with a monster year this year. George Karl has done a brilliant job and put him in position to be a max player next year.”

It always comes back to that. Which is fair.

Rondo was a free agent during the last offseason, but he was also coming off a season that ended with him chucked off of a team coached by the NBA’s president of its coaching association. He spent a summer with his goofball hoverboard and managed to sign a massive one-year deal with the most dysfunctional franchise in the NBA. Every smart league observer pegged the guy as the most to lose with his play in 2015-16, and he entertained us all when summer turned into fall while half-jokingly bringing up a bit of a nasty back and forth with coach George Karl.

To Carlisle, ever the mensch, this doesn’t rest on Rajon:

“That stuff with Rondo, you can’t blame that on Rondo,” Carlisle said. “He tried to make that work. The ending was difficult, but bottom line, I knew he’d move on and play great, which he is.”

The Mavericks are 20th in offense this year, and the team’s 10-7 schedule has been greased by a rather light early batch of opponents. Dirk Nowitzki is once again playing fabulous basketball, and the team is fun as hell to watch. Dwight Powell, a supposed throwaway in the Rondo deal, is having a fantastic season for Dallas.

This seems like a good divorce, for all involved. Even if the Mavericks have to cough up the 22nd pick in the draft on the way toward accepting as much.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops