Rajon Rondo, Lamar Odom and the trend of Mavericks flaming out

When Lamar Odom approached the podium in Dallas for the first time, preparing to speak as a Dallas Maverick for the first time, he looked like he was preparing to eulogize a lost friend. We should have known then that things were going to sour quickly with the the now-former Kardashian. He only wanted to be in one place (L.A.), and his relationship with his former team was becoming strained. He seemingly never fully invested himself in his time in Dallas, butted heads with Carlisle, and he eventually quit on his teammates. His stat line reflected that.

I was at the game in Memphis when Cuban and Carlisle publicly (at least to those in the FedEx Forum that day) decided that Lamar Odom was never going to wear a Mavericks uniform again. It was a good day in that Odom wouldn't play again. It was a bad day in that Dallas had officially wasted a first round pick on someone who seemingly never wanted to be here.

Now, it seems, Rajon Rondo is just Lamar Odom all over again. We hoped it wouldn't be, but maybe we should have seen the same signs and recognized that history was about to repeat itself. The Mavericks sent a first-round pick to Boston, along with other assets, for Rondo. Rondo seemingly wasn't going to fit in, and his relationship with his former team was becoming strained. He never fully invested himself in this team, butted heads with Carlisle, and on Tuesday night he quit on his teammates. By Wednesday, he was no longer with the team.

His Mavericks-career stat line? Not great.

At first glance it doesn't look terrible, and the fact he shot 35 percent on three-pointers stands out, but like Lamar, it goes beyond the stat line with Rondo.

However, while Odom and Rondo are the two high-profile flops, there have been others since the championship run. Here are a few. While it manifsted differently for each of these free agents, all of their relationships with the Dallas Mavericks fizzled out for one reason or another.

Derek Fisher (2012-13)

Dallas brough Derek Fisher in to help bolster a point guard unit that featured Darren Collison, Roddy B and Dominique Jones. The experiment lasted an entire nine games before Fisher retired to "spend time with family." Apparently two months with family was enough for Fisher, who signed with Oklahoma City, coming off the bench for the Thunder throughout the second half of the regular season and the playoffs.

Delonte West (2011-12)

West's on-court performance for the Mavericks was actually quite admirable, seeing how he was playing for a team that had been absolutely gutted just months after winning the title. However, his struggle with bipolar disorder resulted in two suspensions for "conduct detrimental to the team," and he was eventually waived.

Darren Collison (2012-13)

To this day, I'm unsure of who to blame for Collison's inconsistency during his year in Dallas. Whether it was his lack of mental fortitude, Carlisle's harsher-than-normal attitude towards him, or some combination of the two, Collison never seemed fully comfortable.

Anthony Morrow (2012-13)

One of the most underrated three-point shooters in the league, a career 42.9 percent shooter from beyond the arc, couldn't even get off the bench in his half-season with Dallas. In fact, in 24 games with Dallas, he only attempted five three point shots. This is the guy who made 141 three-point shots for Oklahoma City this season, more than anyone on Dallas' roster currently. Only Dirk (104) and Parsons (135) made over 100 three-pointers for Dallas this season.

Morrow and Collison didn't have the terrible attitudes and complete burnouts like Rondo and Odom, but you can see how they fit into a rather disturbing trend.