Chicago Bulls Midseason Grades: Butler shines, Wade and Rondo shrug

Dec 13, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) reacts after making a basket against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at the United Center. Minnesota defeats Chicago 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 13, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) reacts after making a basket against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at the United Center. Minnesota defeats Chicago 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports /

Rajon Rondo

Stats: 27.3 minutes, 6.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 37.0 FG%, 31.8 3PT%, 56.7 FT%

Grade: D+

At last we’ve come to the final Bull, the final Alpha, and the greatest Connect Four player to ever grace these 50 states of ours. Rajon Rondo signed with the Bulls this offseason amidst great fanfare, and GarPax were adamant that every man, woman, and child know how he led the NBA in assists last season.

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Many were skeptical that this latest stop on Rondo’s tour of locker room terrorizing would be any different than Sacramento was last year or Dallas was before that. That skepticism was proven correct last week when Rondo took to Instagram to set NBA twitter on fire. Rondo gave his take on Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade complaining to the media about the effort level of their teammates after a brutal loss to the Atlanta Hawks. That’s right. He chastised them for going to the media…through a social media post.

That’s off the court stuff though. On the court, Rondo has encountered a completely different bevy of struggles. You can see his eyes glaze over on defense from your living room couch, and he throws terrible passes that commentators try to pass off as “too sophisticated for these young guys” at least four or five times a game. (They’re bad passes. They’re not on some higher plane of basketball IQ. They’re just bad.)

He’s seemed to up his effort level a bit since his five-game stretch of riding the bench for 48 minutes, and that’s why I’m refraining from a straight F. I’m also slowly becoming curious about the potential of the bench unit of Rondo-McDermott-Zipser-Mirotic-Felicio that I’m now calling “Rajon and the Rondos” (tweet me with your feedback).

Regardless, Rondo has been more or less exactly what we expected, and what we expected was bad. He kills the spacing, he doesn’t play defense, and he didn’t attempt a free throw for over a month. For more, check out Zach Harper’s latest story for FanRag NBA about Rondo’s impact on the Bulls’ offense

Congratulations for making it to the end of this behemoth. Here’s to a better second half of the season, but don’t get your hopes up.