Coming into the season, Rondo was expected to be this guy. Unfortunately, his jumper, while improved, isn't respectable enough to the point where teams are going to fight over screens for him.
Until Rondo can get a good, solid jumper, he won't be an ideal option for a crunch-time bucket. If he can, though, he'll be deadly. That mixture of jump-shooting, driving ability, and passing is scary.
We get it. You don't like Rondo and you would blame him no matter how good he is or how sensational he is such as tonight's game. It's getting old
Why do you people get so defenseive? The above poster didn't say anything anti-Rondo, all he sais is that Rondo doesn't have what it takes to be a go-to guy, and he's absolutely right. Its no knock against Rondo, that's just not his game.
For example, when was the last time you saw Rondo average 20 PPG over a 10 game stretch in the regular season? Has he ever done it in his entire career? Even in the Playoffs?
To be a go-to guy you don't only need to be a capable scorer, you need to be a DOMINANT scorer. You need to be able to score in a variety of ways - Paul Pierce and Carmello Anthony are perfect examples. Those guys can shoot the three, post up, score off the dribble, get to the foul line, pull up from midrange. They are professional scorers, and if you take away one of their scoring options, they can beat you with two or three other ways.
Rondo simple doesn't have that in his game. He will have certain games where he's hot and everything is falling, but those days will happen maybe once or twice a month if that. Otherwise he can Gove you double figure points every night, but that's about the extent of it.
Think of Rondo as a new-school John Stockton - an exceptional PG, but he needs his Karl Malone by his side to handle the scoring burden.
I've been saying it for months now, we will not have a primary scorer when Pierce retires. Look at us now - Pierce is out go-to guy and yes l, he's still an elite scorer, but he's got a lot of mileage on that body and he can't so it every night anymore. KG is a guy who prefers to play defense, rebound and do the little things - he's never been a shoot-first guy. Rondo as above is a pass first guy with a limited scoring game. Barbosa has always been streaky. Lee has never been much more (offensively) than a support player.
The only guys we have who have the talent to take on this Role are Terry (who's struggling) and Green (who's yet to find consitency and motivation).