I hate to knock Rondo since he is hands down our best player, but I can no longer pretend that this kid plays elite defense. Last night against Chicago Kirk Hinrich got to the basket against him with ease on multiple occasions. This is a pattern that I have been seeing over the past few weeks and it is starting to become a glaring hole in our defense. The bigs are being left out to dry and our rotations are not crisp enough yet to make up for this matador style defense. I am by no means blaming Rondo for our struggles the entire season but if this trend continues I don't see us getting much better defensively anytime soon. He needs to become more aggressive in staying in front of his man. This tactic will allow for a lot less moving parts on defense and, in general, better defense.

I don't think it's a coincidence that with Bradley in our lineup this team is exceptional defensively. He is a master at keeping his man in front of him. With him in the lineup the opposing guard can not and does not get to the rim effectively. Less kick outs, less bigs rotating, less easy baskets. I wish Rondo would focus on this part of his game. When he is going defensively we are a much tougher team to beat. However, over the past few weeks, mayber longer, he has been playing awful on the defensive end. Did anyone notice that he got beat twice in the fourth quarter on a back door move? 4 points in the fourth quarter because of lazy defense. I love the assists and I love the points but give me aggressive defense and the rest can just be gravy.