LA Clippers: Reacting to the team swapping Sweet Lou for Playoff Rondo

The LA Clippers swapped Lo Williams for Rajon Rond; will the deal pay off?

Lou Williams joined the LA Clippers in the trade that sent Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets during the 2017 offseason. Today, at the NBA Trade Deadline, the Sweet Lou era in LA ended as the Clippers dealt Williams, two second-round picks, and cash to the Atlanta Hawks for veteran Rajon Rondo.

This is a bitter-sweet deal for Clippers fans because Williams has had some very impressive season’s with the club in a short period of time. Including winning Sixth Man of the Year twice.

In return, they added Rajon Rondo who has appeared in only 27 of the Hawks’ 44 games. Perhaps the Clippers acquired Rondo hoping to gain some inside intel on the Los Angeles Lakers, considering Rondo spent the last two seasons with the Clippers’ inner-city rival.

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Rondo is aging and injury-prone; the argument could be made that the Clippers would have been better off keeping Williams. Maybe this is purely a chemistry move.

Things with Williams and the Clippers began breaking down after Williams broke health and safety protocol while he was away from the NBA Bubble to attend his grandfather’s funeral. To be clear, attending the funeral is not what broke protocol, it was Sweet Lou’s extracurricular activities while he was outside the bubble.

For the Hawks, this gives them some much-needed veteran leadership and added firepower. This is a home run deal for Atlanta whose record currently sits at 22-22 in a three-way tie with the Miami Heat and New York Knicks for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.

This was one of the final big moves of the afternoon, and it was a massive positive for the Hawks. As for the LA Clippers, it remains to be seen how it will turn out for Kawhi Leonard and company.