Should Darren Collison Start Over Rajon Rondo?

There’s been a ton of talk about Rajon Rondo joining the Sacramento Kings this offseason, and rightfully so. He was the biggest name the Kings managed to bring in, and is surrounded by controversy after his implosion on the Dallas Mavericks.

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Most people assume that Rondo is going to be the Kings starting point guard right off of the bat. He was once one of the top guards in the NBA, and he is getting $9.5 million this season–that doesn’t seem like bench player money.

The thing is, what if Darren Collison is better than Rondo will be next season?

Collison got injured halfway through last year, but before that he was scoring really well–far better than Rondo was last season. Let’s compare their years:

Rk	Player	Age	GS	MP	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Darren Collison	27	45	1565	12.7	.473	3.7	.373	4.2	.788	3.3	5.8	1.5	0.3	2.6	2.2	16.7
2	Rajon Rondo	28	68	2018	11.5	.426	1.5	.314	1.4	.397	6.7	9.6	1.6	0.1	3.7	2.7	10.8

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/30/2015.

These are their per 36 minutes statistics, because I wanted to be fair to Rondo, who played five less minutes per game than Collison did.

Collison is the better shooter from all areas (but especially from the charity stripe), he turned the ball over less, fouled less and scored far more than Rondo. Rondo has the assisting and rebounding advantages, but I’m not real worried about the Kings point guard rebounding considering the team will have Kosta Koufos, Willie Cauley-Stein and DeMarcus Cousins snagging boards.

So really Rondo’s main advantage is passing. Which is certainly important–that’s what point guards are primarily for–but does it justify his complete inability to score? I think it does.

Rondo also has a defensive advantage both in steals and defensive rating (105 to 110), so his passing, rebounding and defense all seem to be better than Collison’s.

So is shooting and scoring that crucial to the Kings offense that Darren Collison should start over Rajon Rondo? I don’t think so. If Rondo can keep playing strong defense and dishing ten assists per 36 minutes, that’s more important to this team than efficient scoring from the point guard spot.

Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins and Ben McLemore can handle a ton of the scoring burden for the Kings. They don’t need Collison in the starting lineup–but bringing him off of the bench to provide a scoring spark when some or all of those three players are resting could be huge for Sacramento’s bench unit, which was terrible last season.

George Karl is known for playing who he believes is the best player despite how much each guy is making–apparently his refusal to play JaVale McGee despite his big contract was a big part of the reason he was dismissed from the Denver Nuggets.

But that doesn’t mean Collison will get the starting job–he’s more of a score-first point guard, which doesn’t fit well next to Boogie and Rudy Gay. Both of those guys need the ball to score–if Collison is taking plenty of shots while out there with those two, that means they can’t be, obviously.

Rondo will not be taking looks away from Gay or Cousins–he’ll be setting them up with the best possible opportunities to score. So expect him to be the starter, and for Cousins, Gay and McLemore to have some of their best offensive seasons to date, now that they finally have a point guard that wants them to shoot more, instead of one that takes shots away from them.

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