Rajon Rondo signs with Hawks, Patrick Patterson returns to Clippers

Two former Wildcats have inked new deals in their last 48 hours.

The most-recent signing was that of point guard Rajon Rondo, who recently make himself a two-time champion. Coming from the Los Angeles Lakers, Rondo has agreed to a two-year deal with the Trae Young-led Atlanta Hawks, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

Rondo is a starter-quality point guard still, and he proved that last season. A former All-NBA player and four-time All-Star, Rondo is the leader that the Hawks craved.

They have a plethora of young talent like Young and John Collins. Now they need to mesh that with the veteran leadership that Rondo can bring. Last season, he averaged 7.1 points and 5.0 assists per game with the Lakers.

That said, within the last day, Rondo wasn’t the only former Wildcat to sign a new deal. Patrick Patterson, who played in Lexington from 2007-2010, was a veteran’s minimum contract with the Clippers last season.

Now, he’ll return to Los Angeles, likely on the same deal. The most-recent news we have on Patterson is that, per Wojnarowski, he’ll be on a one-year deal, the amount doesn’t seem disclosed yet.

Patterson and Rondo are both going to have impactful roles on their roster.

The more shocking of these two is certainly Rondo, but the seven-and-a-half million per year may have been far more than the Lakers were will to fork out. Despite having a terrific postseason with the Lakers, Rondo won’t be back.

For Patterson, he’ll be looking at a new season as a fresh chance at overachieving, something the Clippers, who were bounced from the playoffs prior to the conference finals, didn’t do a season ago.