Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo passed former St. Louis Hawks guard Lenny Wilkens for 15th on the NBA’s all-time assists list during the team’s 112-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Rondo played one of his most consistent games of the 2019-20 NBA season in the win over the Clippers by dishing out seven assists. Most of those came in the third quarter, which was one of Rondo’s best quarters of the season. This also happened while LeBron James was on the bench, leading to necessary good minutes from him.
With this game, Rondo has now dished out a total of 7,213 career assists, passing Wilkens’ 7,211 career total. It took Wilkens 1,077 career games to reach this figure while playing 15 seasons and garnering nine All-Star appearances. Rondo reached his assist total in 872 games played over 14 seasons with four All-Star appearances in that time.
It may take some time before Rondo takes his next step on the all-time assist list as Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook is currently 14th with 7,260. While that’s only 47 more than Rondo, Westbrook is playing nearly 15 more minutes per game and averaging 7.0 assists compared to Rondo’s 5.1.
Rondo’s next realistic route to No. 14 is to pass former Philadelphia 76ers guard Maurice Cheeks. At Rondo’s current 5.1 assists per game average, passing Cheeks most likely wouldn’t occur until next season.
Rondo has had a fairly inconsistent season with the Lakers so far, but has played well in some of the big games this season. Beyond the third quarter against the Clippers, he was instrumental in the team’s close win over the Boston Celtics in February and led them to a shocking blowout win over the Oklahoma City Thunder when both James and Anthony Davis sat out.
Rondo is averaging 7.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists on 41.8 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from the three-point line.