Rondo down with coach Hoiberg: 'He doesn't micromanage'
Chicago Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo has had some well-documented differences of opinion with past coaches, but he and first-year Bulls bench boss Fred Hoiberg appear to have gotten off on the right foot.
Rondo, who's playing on his fourth team in three seasons, has found it easy to get along with his new coach, thanks to Hoiberg's comparatively hands-off approach and willingness to entrust play-calling decisions to his point guard.
"He came to me and said he likes his point guard to run the show," Rondo told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. "Every situation is different. Fred does have more of a laid-back personality. He doesn't micromanage as much as some coaches do in the league. For me, that's big."
That may sound like a thinly veiled shot at notoriously fastidious Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, with whom Rondo had a rather spectacular public flameout two seasons ago, but Rondo said he maintains a healthy reverence for Carlisle.
"I have a lot of respect for Rick. Just because things don't go well doesn't mean you hate a person or that the media perception is right," Rondo said. "Rick and I had a good relationship in the beginning. We tried to work it out. I worked with him every day on my shot. We watched film together. Not every marriage works. It was a learning process."
Rondo was traded to the Mavs with much fanfare midway through the 2014-15 campaign. By season's end, however, his relationship with Carlisle had soured, and he was removed from the playoff roster entirely after leaving the Mavericks in the middle of their first-round playoff series, under the pretense of a back injury.
"We started halfway during the season and expectations were extremely high," Rondo said. "We jumped in. The situation happened during the season. We tried to get it to work. It didn't. The rest is history."
Though he's struggled individually in Chicago - posting some of the worst per-game, peripheral, and shooting numbers of his career - Rondo feels he's in a good situation, while the 10-6 Bulls have so far exceeded expectations.
"(The team is) making progress," Rondo said. "I have no complaints. We're No. 2 in the East right now. What's to complain about?"