When you have a coach like Rick Carlisle, you never really get excited about a key acquisition until you get a sense for how his personality meshes with Carlisle.
The Dallas Mavericks' coach is brutally honest, something many NBA stars haven't experienced since they've been coddled since AAU ball. He can be acerbic at times, and occasionally he criticizes players in public.
Not every player can handle that.
Monta Ellis has handled it beautifully. O.J. Mayo didn't. Neither did Lamar Odom. Chandler Parsons seems to be handling it pretty well, especially when Carlisle essentially called him fat early in the season.
Well, we're about to find out if Rajon Rondo, acquired in a December trade with the Boston Celtics, can handle it.
Rondo and Carlisle had a courtside argument for the ages before a packed arena in Tuesday's win over Toronto that resulted in Rondo getting benched for the final 20 minutes.
In the locker room after the game, they reportedly had a verbal confrontation that included more expletives than a Chris Rock monologue. The Mavs suspended Rondo for Wednesday's game -- a loss to Atlanta -- and he returns Saturday night against Brooklyn.
We know Carlisle can put the incident behind him, because we've seen him do it with other players. We don't know if Rondo can do it.
If he can, then the Mavs still have a shot to make a deep playoff run. If not, they probably won't do much in the playoffs because of the tension between the point guard and the coach.
Whatever happens, don't expect Rondo to re-sign with Dallas after the season. He's a talented dude whose skill set doesn't fit the Mavs' offense.
While his defense and rebounding make the Mavs much better defensively, Rondo is abject on offense in an offensive scheme that requires the point guard to be a good shooter.
In the Mavs' offense, the ball movement often results in the point guard getting open jumpers from weak side. If he can't hit that shot, the offense suffers.
Rondo is shooting 40.8 percent from the field. While he's a career 47.0 percent shooter from the field, he's eclipsed that once in the past four seasons.
And when the Mavs run the pick-and-roll -- a key part of their offense -- teams don't respect Rondo's ability to hit a midrange jumper, so the guards go under the screen, making it harder for the player rolling to score.
While he can still get into the lane, Rondo is reluctant to do it because he's such a poor free throw shooter; he's made 7 of 25 with the Mavs. So, you see, he is lacking in the offensive department.
There's no way the Mavs are going to give him a max contract. They might be willing to part with $10 million a year for the four-time All-Star, but he might command more from another team.
The Mavs' top priority, though, is to mend the relationship between Carlisle and Rondo. Carlisle said they each need to communicate better about how the offense should be run when Rondo's in the game.
Carlisle wants the offense to run a certain way. Rondo is still learning what he wants, so Carlisle calls most of the plays when he's on the court. He doesn't trust Rondo yet. Who knows if he ever will? Obviously, a cerebral player such as Rondo, who's used to running the show, would like the freedom to run the offense the best way he sees fit.
That ain't happening anytime soon, so he needs to make whatever mental adjustment necessary to deal with that. The most important thing he can do is play better.
He's averaging 9.0 points and 6.2 assists per game, but he's not controlling games. Now, there's a faction of folks who swear Rondo will be much better in the playoffs than he's been for the Mavs lately.
They're basing that claim on his 2012 performance, when he averaged 17.3 points and 11.9 assists.
That was a long time ago.
Unless his jumper and his free throw shooting improve significantly, he's not going to dominate in the Western Conference playoffs. This offense is different from the scheme Boston used.
There's no tangible evidence he can play better. There's only hope.
And it all starts with Rondo and Carlisle finding a common ground.