But the fact remains that Rondo has controlled the ball more this season, and the offence has been worse, so I'm not sure how you reconcile this with the statement that we're "typically a good offense when Rondo controls the ball".
The way I reconcile the statement is that I recall games that Rondo played in before early-mid December of this year. Rondo didn't just start playing for the Celts this year and he didn't just start controlling the ball on offense. I also realize that the fact that 2 of our top 3 scorers have been playing through injuries, and the offense went downhill over the time since Rondo got the bone bruise on his hip, and that he was frequently wearing an ice pack on his back when he wasn't in the game. The offense was better than average earlier this year, and there are clearly reasons that it was poor over a stretch of games other than just Rondo dribbling the ball.
And no-one has been nicked and bruised on the Celtics prior to this season? And everyone magically got healthy when Rondo got injured?
There are sure multiple factors at work here, but Rondo dribbling the ball too much is quite clearly one of them.
Lack of movement off the ball probably accounts for much of Rondo dribbling so much, and you haven't shown that Rondo dribbling so much has a negative effect on the offense.
Also, you're right, this isn't the first time someone on the Celts has been nicked and bruised. In the middle of the 09-10 season KG and PP (and, I think, Rondo) were all missing games and in and out of the lineup and not up to snuff when they played and the offense (and the team play) suffered. In the 10-11 season Rondo spent much of the season struggling with injuries and the offense (and the team play) suffered. In the 11-12 season KG and PP were injured/playing poorly early in the season and Rondo was nicked up as well and, shockingly the offense (and the team play) suffered.
Heck, you could go back to our title year when Rondo had an injury (hamstring I think) around Xmas and the offense dropped off quite a bit until he was healthy again. The team goes through poor stretches of play when key players are struggling or out of the lineup every single year, people are just acting like this is the first time they've ever seen it and don't understand that you don't need to over-react to it when it happens.