After Kendrick Perkins was traded away, Rajon Rondo struggled. This is not breaking news to people who paid any amount of attention.

He stopped throwing dimes at a historic pace. His (marginally) improved shot stopped going down. I don’t want to question Rondo’s heart, not after he morphed into the killer from Fugitive, playing the Miami Heat series essentially with one arm, but there were times when Rondo just didn’t seem very interested in playing basketball. It was easy to wonder whether Rondo just missed his scowly friend, Perk.

But during the NBA lockout, Rondo might have found a solution to the deep hole Perk’s departure left in his heart: become Perk’s teammate overseas. (Yahoo! Sports)

Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo and Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, close friends, have been discussing the possibility of playing together overseas, and have had representatives inquiring on the possibilities, sources said.

Rondo and Perkins are interested in playing in higher-paying countries, such as Italy, Spain and Russia, sources said. There’s no deal in the works, and it’s unclear if there’s even a team that could financially put together the kind of contracts it would take to lure the players.

Insurance premiums cut significantly into the money that teams are willing to pay frontline NBA starters, and in some instances, the difference left in pay won’t make the leap overseas worth making for some players.

I wonder if they’ll cuddle on the flight.

Seriously: As I said earlier today, there’s real risk involved in players defecting overseas. What if Rondo, God forbid, suffered an ACL tear in Spain? Or an MCL tear in Italy? Or a broken femur in Russia?

I get why Rondo wants to team up with Perkins overseas. Make money, play basketball, have week-long Monopoly games with Perk. Sounds like a great life. But as a Celtics fan, the idea makes me cringe.