my turn on rondo..

every ones arguement of rondo is that he is hurting the team cause of his play is always up and down…

He has played in 4 games that he either doesnt have double digit points or double digit assists/rebounds. so its single digits in all three categories.

pierce 4.
ray 6.
kg 4.

TURNOVERS! have killed the team at times, and the ball is carried up and plays start thru rondo most of the time…

rondo 73.
pierce 72.
ray 44.
kg 51… kg is the only one to play in every game up til the past chicago game on sunday.

WELL ITS HIS ENERGY WE WANT/NEED! He is the only position that hasnt had another player that can play decent minutes to give him a rest. it seems like a very long list have tried, but none have stuck.

Pierce has had pietrus, posey, green..
Kg – bass, baby, Oneal..
Ray – TA, daniels.
Rondo has had bradley, nate, house, hudson, cassel, marbury, pruit, dooling and its not there faults but doc either doesnt trust them to run the offense or they just couldnt play pg at a high level anymore.

so rondo has always gotten a high level of MPG. (only Ray can say the same.) Even pierce has gotten more rest than Rondo. Rondo is around 38 mpg the past few seasons to pierces 34. And yes that is not much, but when rondo’s main job is to run the court every time he touches it, it can take a beating on his body.

Players around him
when the big rotation is O’neal, O’neal, Perk, KG, Baby, that is not a very fast team. Pierce cant keep up with rondo and he along with ray are better suited as the trailers on the break. meaning no big is clearing the lane for rondo to run.
perfect example was sunday – wilcox and johnson both had easy alley-oop dunks cause they were keeping up with rondo. Infact they were on back to back plays. and that is what makes rondo as good as he can be, RUNNING! (i feel like tommy, RUN RUN RUN RUN!)

his shooting percentage has always been low.
he is averaging a career high in shots this year at 11.2 per game. and shooting just under 50%
pierce has never averaged under less than 12.2 which was three years ago and he was at 47%.
i understand rondo has not taken the hardest shots in the world but he is still around a respectable %

this year Pierce is at 13 per game @ 41%
rondo has started to take the outside shot and is 11 shots per game at 49%

pierce takes more three point shots, obviously! but look at what lebron has started to do, he is passing on the 3 pointers and driving the lane. taking a foul and getting to the line. we dont want pierce to do that cause it kills his body over the course of the season, BUT we want rondo to do that. and rondo is A LOT SMALLER than both lebron and pierce. so that doesnt make sense to me.

HE PLAYS WITH HALL OF FAME teammates!!
Then why was it so hard for nate, house, hudson, cassel, marbury, pruit to get the numbers that can porduce wins. And a championship. And another finals appearance.
KGs shooting percentage in minnesota was never higher than .526… in boston never lower than .521. i understand that ray and pierce have something to do with that. but he also gets A TON of wide open shots playing with rondo.

in losses KG shoots 41% Pierce 38%

in wins KG shoots 57% pierce 43%

thats a BIG seperation.

in the last couple losses (every one has started talking more about trading rondo since)

vs LA kg was 6-23
ray 9-20
pierce 7-18
rondo 7-13

to be fair vs toronto
kg 6-9
ray 3-8
pierce 4-11
rondo 2-10

rondo was the only player to play 40+ minutes for both games. so the fatigue factor could have been a big reason for the off night.

my point of all this is.
finally.

Lets not be so quick to blame rondo for all of the bad games this year. Lets understand its a team still lead by kg, ray, pierce. Rondo is just the most important player. and he has never had a back up who can play for more than 4 minutes at a time.

Is it that Rondo needs less minutes?

Everybody here recons Rondo is good for the team its just that some people (like me) believe that fans at Celticsblog way overrate him. He is not a top 3 pg, not top 5 either. He’s at the tail end of the top 10. Top 10 is still very good in a league dense with talent at that spot. I think if Wall and Rubio keep improving and Lin’s epic run isn’t a fluke then sometime next season should see Rondo fall out of the top 10. I guess thats why we should see what we can get for him in a trade before his value drops.

8 minutes per quarter…but if he doesn’t bring 100% EFFORT, EVERY game, then we are going to see a loss to the Lakers, at home, on national TV, against our most hated rival…when was the last time you saw rose, d.will,westbrook, Nash, etc… NOT get a single free throw, especially with the game on the line… go look it up…NEVER!!! It is inconceivable that the Rondo that alot of people consider one of the top 3 PG in the league could somehow,NOT GENERATE a single trip to the line…did anyone watch the Knicks game vs the raptors tonight??? Lin was not having a good game but he kept giving it his all, 100%, and the Knicks won, Rondo posted a state line of 5 pts,7ast,5 to, against the same team that Lin posted 27 pts,11 ast,8to because he gave 100%!!!!! EFFORT+SKILLS=results, usually in the win column….

Sadly, our PG can’t do that with the game on the line. Sigh.

Haha. I’m enjoying this Lin take off… did anyone happen to see the Minnesota game they started knocking him around, putting players in front of him as he drives. I did see Toronto do the same. That offense is built to allow PGs to thrive, to run, pick and roll/pop/drive, a 2 man game… The celtics offense is designed to share the ball. 5 man offense.. while we are on it. Minnesota, LA, who else have they played… Toronto… they have all been known as defense first teams. New York/d’antoni has never been known to have pg first offenses. “how did rondo do vs those teams”… ok let’s look at the career of rondo vs Toronto. Minnesota. LA..

We are comparing Lin’s effort vs rondo’s effort…

So if kg goes 10-23 ray 11-20 all this would not matter, rondo would have had over 10 assists. 2 steals. Over 10 points.

The celtics struggles this year are because….

A. Players were out of shape, than injuries.

B. Age.

C. So many new faces learning a complicated system.

D. Execution. To many turn overs. Players out of position.

E. We don’t have J. Lin

F. Rondo

I like how NO one has mentioned the drastic difference of percentages of kg in wins vs kg in losses. Or pierces difference. It’s all on rondo

JUST WIN BABY