Source: Rondo agrees to deal with Bulls

For an hour Friday, Rajon Rondo and Fred Hoiberg watched film.

Hoiberg envisioned the player who led the NBA with 11.7 assists per game and directed the league's fastest-paced offense enacting Hoiberg's preferred style of play. Rondo left the meeting feeling confident in Hoiberg's vision and empowering him to run the offense.

There are question marks surrounding Rondo's verbal agreement Sunday to a two-year, $28 million deal with the Bulls that will become official once the free-agent moratorium ends Thursday.

How will Rondo and Jimmy Butler, two players who prefer to pound the ball and aren't great 3-point shooters, play together? Does Rondo, 30, fit management's goal to become younger and more athletic? How will his arrival affect the development of Jerian Grant and Denzel Valentine? What is the language for team protection on the second year, which a source said isn't fully guaranteed and thus preserves cap space if needed for 2017?

Strip all of that away, though, and the most critical element to making this work is Hoiberg and Rondo working harmoniously.

There is no denying Rondo's talent. From 2010 to 2013, he made the All-Star Game four straight times. From 2009 to 2012, he landed on the All-Defensive team. He started on the 2008 NBA champion Celtics, who had an associate head coach named Tom Thibodeau.

Rondo has clearly overcome a torn ACL in January 2013. In addition to the 11.7 assists, he averaged 11.7 points and six rebounds for the Kings last season while posting 37 double-doubles and six triple-doubles. As an aside, three Bulls offseason acquisitions - Rondo, Valentine and Paul Zipser - have had knee surgeries.

Rondo's strong season with the Kings on a one-year, make-good deal also saw him shoot a career high 36.5 percent from 3-point range and outshoot Derrick Rose from all ranges: inside the arc, outside the arc and inside the restricted area.

And he's a pass-first pure point guard and strong rebounder for his position who owns career averages of 11 points, 8.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds over 10 seasons.

But Rondo has a reputation for a strong personality that clashed most severely with coach Rick Carlisle during his lone season with the Mavericks in 2014-15. He also tried Doc Rivers' patience in Boston, and he drew a one-game suspension last season for using a homophobic slur against official Bill Kennedy, who is gay.

Rondo's headstrong reputation stems from his high basketball IQ, according to two people who have coached him. So how well he works with Hoiberg is of far greater importance than, say, whether the Bulls waive their policy of no headbands. That's Rondo's preferred look.

"I'm excited," Rondo told Marc Spears of ESPN's The Undefeated website, who first reported the agreement. "Great organization with pieces around me that I'm excited about."

Previously, the Bulls had no plans to waive veteran Jose Calderon, acquired from the Knicks in the Rose trade. But they now have a glut of ballhandlers, although Spencer Dinwiddie's deal is non-guaranteed.

Rondo's signing brings the Bulls to the salary floor of $84.7 million and eliminates the pipe dream of signing Dwyane Wade. The Bulls still own roughly $10 million of cap space and could add another wing via free agency or trade.