Rajon Rondo excluded as Mavs spread around playoff money

DALLAS -- The Dallas Mavericks opted not to give departed point guard Rajon Rondo a playoff share, sources said.

Rondo, who was acquired by the Mavericks in a blockbuster trade in December, left the team after the first two games of their first-round playoff series against Houston. The Mavs announced that Rondo had suffered a back injury, but a source told ESPNDallas.com that the team and Rondo actually reached a mutual decision to go their separate ways after he played only 9 minutes and 55 seconds in Dallas' Game 2 loss.

The other 14 players on the roster evenly divided $208,940, which is awarded to teams that lose in the first round of the playoffs. Houston beat Dallas in five games in the best-of-seven series.

Players determine how the team's playoff shares are divided. The players did not vote to exclude Rondo, the source said. They were simply presented with a list that did not include him, and there were no objections.

Rondo will become a free agent this summer. Coach Rick Carlisle has made it clear that he does not expect Rondo to return to Dallas.

While the results of the Rondo trade were far from what the Mavs had hoped, Dallas president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson expressed no regrets about the deal that sent swingman Jae Crowder, center Brandan Wright, point guard Jameer Nelson, a protected first-round pick and a second-round pick to Boston.

"That was definitely something worth pulling the trigger on," Nelson said after conducting exit interviews Wednesday. "In our opinion, that was kind of the one piece that was missing. Certainly, a guy that's 28 with the accolades and the championship experience and all defense and we've had a history of doing well with pass-first point guards.

"Sometimes when things are written down on paper, they look great; when things are going into the oven they feel great and a lot of times when it comes out sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It was one of those things that in our estimation certainly wasn't risk free, but it was certainly worth the risk. If we would've had to do it all over again, we would've pulled the trigger again."