Former Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl joined Kap & Co. with David Kaplan on WMVP-AM on Thursday to weigh in on the Bulls' recent roster moves, including the signing of former Kings point guard Rajon Rondo — who Karl reportedly had a rocky relationship with during his tenure in Sacramento.
Despite their rocky past, Karl regarded Rondo as "definitely coachable" and "one of the most intelligent people and also basketball people."
The fifth-winningest coach in NBA history continued to say "there's book smart, street smart, and basketball smart, in my opinion, but Rajon is pretty intelligent all the way around."
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Coming from one of the best coaches of all time in Karl, those comments say a lot about the type of player the Bulls are getting in Rondo.
Karl also dismissed the notion that Rondo was a hard player to coach.
"I think he wants to win basketball games," Karl said. "I think he's a competitor. The only problems I had with him were defensively he had lapses."
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Karl also remained positive when saying he believes Rondo, the four-time NBA All-Star who won a title with the Boston Celtics in 2008, is going to have a different drive now that he has a two-year deal with the Bulls, as opposed to his previous one-year deal with the Kings.
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When Kaplan asked Karl if the Bulls will have a better backcourt with Rondo and Dwyane Wade as opposed to Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler (Butler will slide to the 3 this season), Karl choose the new duo.
"I think Rajon and Wade is going to be a better backcourt than last year," Karl said. "Rondo and Wade are tremendously different than Rose and whoever played back there. They upgraded their backcourt."
Does Karl think Rondo is better than Rose, however?
"I'm not going to go there."