Rajon Rondo thumbed his nose at the head coach and ended up with a one-game suspension. It's a classic case of a player without much credibility in this organization overplaying his hand.
Rick Carlisle is a made man in this town and Rondo tried to show him up. I think both men acted immaturely, but that can happen in the course of a season. Rondo and Carlisle had another confrontation in the locker room Tuesday, according to ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon. And that can't happen. Carlisle gives his players a wide berth because he knows it's an emotional game. It's unlike him to completely lose his composure with a player.
It's likely this situation had been simmering in recent games. Now, it's up to Carlisle to make things right. He vowed to do just that Wednesday in Atlanta.
"I need to say this very clearly: He is an extremely important part of our team," Carlisle told reporters. "Our efforts to get to the highest possible level largely hinge on him playing and playing well with him. He needs to play well with us, and we need to play well with him. It's a two-way street.
"The incident last night was born in large part out of poor communication between him and I. That's on both of us. We had a long talk about the situation today, and we both agreed that we need to communicate more frequently.
We need to work on the solution for making his stint as a Dallas Maverick the most successful one possible. We're looking at 23 games here. Right now, this is a critical time for us."
It's also critical for the Mavs to evaluate whether Rondo's a player they want to consider re-signing. Right now, that seems pretty unlikely. The offense has suffered since Rondo took over as point guard. The defense has improved, but it hasn't been a dramatic change. Rondo's inability to knock down shots allows teams to sag in the lane. And his assists are down significantly from his time in Boston.
The Mavs probably focused too much on Rondo's involvement on a Celtics championship team. For once they focused more on that than any analytics. It's hard to fathom how broken his shot truly is from afar.
It was a little naive to put so much faith in a change of scenery. Maybe we're learning that Rondo is capable of being miserable in any system.
There are rumblings the Lakers or the Knicks will be willing to offer more money to Rondo than the Mavs. The only thing that could change things is a long playoff run.
That seems like a stretch at this point. This team hasn't fared well against the top teams in the Western Conference. And on Wednesday, the depleted Mavs succumbed to the Atlanta Hawks after hanging around in the first half.
There's a chance Tuesday's dust-up could actually spark this team. Maybe it will force Carlisle and Rondo to communicate more.
After all, they may not have much more time together. And judging by Rondo's 25 games with the Mavs, that's probably not a bad thing.
Turns out the two smartest guys in the room can act pretty childish at times. One of them just happens to have more job security than the other.
MORE FROM FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST:
- Ranking NFL quarterback salaries
- College football's highest paid coaches in 2014
- Oldest player on every NBA team
- Highest paid player of each NBA team
- Ten reasons why we're glad baseball is back
