It was a good listen, but I have to say, it was a little over dramatic when discussing the “passing of the torch.” It mainly came from the submitter of the email. Didn’t Pierce just come up super clutch in the Bulls series and win us a game with 3 consecutive shots?

I think you are about 4 years premature on this one. Pierce is still ball faking like a master and getting his pump shot to go with ease.

On Rondo, the problem is not expecting him to score or get triple-doubles. The problem is doing his job running the team effectively. That’s the most important thing, and what is most inconsistent about him. As Doc puts it “play with speed”, and that has nothing to do with amount of rebounds, assits, or points. Simply play with speed, quick decision making, good decisions, be aggressive, run the team as it should… set the pace. Everything else will take care of itself.

I think Rondo’s best game has been one that he scored 14 or so points this playoffs, but he ran the team very well and that is much much valuable to this team.

He’s dominating the ball, he has a huge responsibility on our offense. It would be different if we were playing through Pierce, like we did on Sunday which explains quite a bit why Rondo didn’t put up the assists. So whomever is dominating the ball and running our offense should be expected to carry out the responsibility of making it work. So far, Rondo has done it all through the playoffs, and when things are not flowing as they should, he’s the first one to be looked at for some portion of the blame (and many times it’s justified). Just the same as he should get a ton of credit when it’s running well. Last night Pierce delivered.

Then there’s his defense, that simply feels like a focus problem.

I’ll say this, he’s playing overall better than I thought he would this playoffs, but knowing his skills and talents, it simply feels like he could play much much better and it gets frustrating. And again, I could care less if he gets triple-doubles or not. My priority with him is running our team, making the right decisions and setting the pace for starters.

Good post. I agree that at times it seems like he could play even better. We forget how young he is sometimes, but all the talent is there. I think teams that get real physical with him tend to affect his play and you add that to the pace that he needs to play at to stay effective and I don’t care how young you are, it’s has to be exhuasting at certain points in the game. I think you explained the psychology of it all pretty well…