Rajon Rondo planned to sign with the Lakers as a free agent

Update: Rondo has been declared out "indefinitely" with a back injury sustained during game 2 of the Mavericks' series against the Houston Rockets. When asked if he expected to ever see Rondo with the Mavericks again, Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said "No, I don't."

Original story follows:

Rajon Rondo had plans to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency this summer, according to the most recent column from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

When Rondo realized his run with the Celtics was over this year, he planned to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer, league sources told Yahoo Sports. He expected a maximum contract.

Rondo has averaged 9.3 points, 6.5 assists, 2.9 turnovers, and 4.5 rebounds this season. According to always plugged in Woj, that has created a situation where there are "no max contract offers for Rondo on the market. Not in Dallas, nor Los Angeles." Whether Rondo still has plans to sign with the Lakers for less then that is not specified.

The Lakers front office is in a position to have max level cap room this summer to go with a potential top five draft pick. Whether they want to utilize very much of this space on a point guard, especially one who was recently benched down the stretch of a playoff game in favor of Raymond Felton, and given the strong play of rookie guard Jordan Clarkson once inserted to the starting lineup is a matter of debate.

Still, there has been an awful lot of Lakers/Rondo smoke this season for there to be no fire. The rumor mill is likely to keep churning out reports like this until free agency is settled in July.