This was not what he signed up for. But he was willing to discuss it.

“I haven’t had this much attention in a while,” Rajon Rondo said, chuckling, as he answered questions last week.

He hadn’t had that much attention from his team of late, either.

It has been an odd season so far for Rondo and the Chicago Bulls, still in the thick of the playoff race in the nobody-gets-eliminated Eastern Conference, but far from the contending team they were a couple of years ago. Chicago has a likely All-Star in Jimmy Butler, and a future Hall of Famer in Dwyane Wade, but it doesn’t appear to have a whole lot of chemistry. Given the mix of Rondo, Wade and Butler -- three talented players, in their own ways, but each of whom needs the ball -- that’s not all that surprising.

But they have to figure out a way to make it work. For now, coach Fred Hoiberg has opted to separate the three and bring Rondo off the bench, where he can push the tempo and get the ball to shooters like Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic, and slashers like rookie Denzel Valentine. Michael Carter-Williams, acquired from Milwaukee earlier this year, has been starting since New Year’s Eve, the night after Rondo logged a -20 plus-minus in the first half of a Bulls loss to the Pacers.

Rondo says he was told by a staffer that he wouldn’t name that the team was taking him out of the starting lineup “to save me from myself.”

And Rondo’s reaction?

“I thought it was (bleep),” he said.