Rajon Rondo = BJ Armstrong.

[BudweiserCeltic]

So, by your assesment as long as Rondo is not turning the ball over more than some of the rest of our team, he's fine?

In a per48 context, he's 20th in the league in turnovers among PG's. And I don't think your assesment that they're taking the ball away from Rondo is correct. This was true early last season, but it is not the case right now.

But lets assume you're correct, then by your estimation his turnovers should not be this high because he's really not participating much in the offense. If he were, then his turnovers would increase. So, you can say that your results don't really depict how much Rondo takes care of the ball. It simply might depict that he doesn't have the ball enough in our offense to even have a chance at causing a turnover. But as I said, this is really not correct. Rondo's is very involved in the offense... more than I would like.

Also, Rondo is the one calling plays. Rondo is running the offense, and it has been this way since the later portion of last season and during the playoffs. That he has the ball in his hand this often, and making poor decisions with the ball in addition to not being a threat to the opponent is precisely why he shouldn't have the ball as often as he does.

[nickagneta]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

[BillfromBoston]

Rondo CLEARLY didn't work an ounce on his weaknesses with shooting from the field or from the line - whatever he did this off-season, it didn't have much to do with those weaknesses - hopefully he's learned a lesson - he's been a borderline starter all season, despite the nice passing, so he better step up and get back in that gym and jack shots with Ray and the gang...

[BudweiserCeltic]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

Poor decision making. That's the most important part of a PG, which in my opinion renders all those other good stats meaningless.

Assists per game - This might simply tell me that he has great finishers in the team AND that he passes up on a ton of shots. We know this to be true.

Assist-to-tunerover ratio - Since the assist per game is meaningless as pointed out above and as we know he's among the leaders in turnovers, then this is really nothing to brag about.

Rebounds per game - now this is really good.

Steals - We all know that he's a gambler, and we also know his deficiencies defensively... so do we really care that he gets all these steals when overall he's not playing good defense? Misleading stat in my opinion.

So my point is, how meaningful are these stats really when Rondo is concerned, when applied in the correct context after watching the games? What good is it for Rondo to be this high in some of these stats among PGs when the most crucial aspect of his game is missing (decision making)?

I'll let you know what those stats tell me. They tell me that Rondo certainly has the capability to be special; to have a great impact in the game. But as it regards in running a team (which is what we're interested in), he's still lacking which is a shame.

[housecall]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

Poor decision making. That's the most important part of a PG, which in my opinion renders all those other good stats meaningless.

Assists per game - This might simply tell me that he has great finishers in the team AND that he passes up on a ton of shots. We know this to be true.

Assist-to-tunerover ratio - Since the assist per game is meaningless as pointed out above and as we know he's among the leaders in turnovers, then this is really nothing to brag about.

Rebounds per game - now this is really good.

Steals - We all know that he's a gambler, and we also know his deficiencies defensively... so do we really care that he gets all these steals when overall he's not playing good defense? Misleading stat in my opinion.

So my point is, how meaningful are these stats really when Rondo is concerned, when applied in the correct context after watching the games? What good is it for Rondo to be this high in some of these stats among PGs when the most crucial aspect of his game is missing (decision making)?

I'll let you know what those stats tell me. They tell me that Rondo certainly has the capability to be special; to have a great impact in the game. But as it regards in running a team (which is what we're interested in), he's still lacking which is a shame.

TP for your post i agree...  stats in this case are definitely misleading.

[crownsy]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

Poor decision making. That's the most important part of a PG, which in my opinion renders all those other good stats meaningless.

Assists per game - This might simply tell me that he has great finishers in the team AND that he passes up on a ton of shots. We know this to be true.

Assist-to-tunerover ratio - Since the assist per game is meaningless as pointed out above and as we know he's among the leaders in turnovers, then this is really nothing to brag about.

Rebounds per game - now this is really good.

Steals - We all know that he's a gambler, and we also know his deficiencies defensively... so do we really care that he gets all these steals when overall he's not playing good defense? Misleading stat in my opinion.

So my point is, how meaningful are these stats really when Rondo is concerned, when applied in the correct context after watching the games? What good is it for Rondo to be this high in some of these stats among PGs when the most crucial aspect of his game is missing (decision making)?

I'll let you know what those stats tell me. They tell me that Rondo certainly has the capability to be special; to have a great impact in the game. But as it regards in running a team (which is what we're interested in), he's still lacking which is a shame.

TP for your post i agree...  stats in this case are definitely misleading.

to be fair, stats on this blog are always meaningless when they don't support your position, and vital when they do  I've defended guys with stats, and had people go "stats don't lie!" while others say thier out of context, and vice versa. Biggest example of this is Roy with ray allen. All last year, people said he couldn't shoot like he used to. roy would show thats not true, and people would say "well, its diffrent. he misses certain shots he used to make"(I, and most others are guilty of this. stats are easily dismissed around here, rightly or wrongly, when they don't bare out what people want.)

This lends itself to my feeling that basketball is the hardest sport to define by stats, but i digrees.

my biggest concern right now is that he WON'T shoot, not his actual shooting. People say "his shots gotten worse" how can we tell, he won't take it. I've literally seen his jumper like, what, 5 times all season?

He needs to take that shot, make or miss. right now he doesn't, and it's hurting us, sicne teams can load up. The nba is a streak league, he makes that shot 2/3 times, you'll see people play him to shoot (for that game anyway, rember perk with yao? they started playin him to take the jumper. it can be a night to night thing.)

[BudweiserCeltic]

Stats alone are always meaningless (well for the most part). They're only a guide, and the context of how things came to be are very important.

It's like when people that say that Ginobili is not a turnover machine because his turnover percentage is good. Of course it is good because the way way that it is calculated factors in free-throw attempts, and Ginobili being one of the top people getting to the line "hides" his turnovers in the stats.

Anyways, I'm with you that it's not about his poor shooting. As I've said before, I could care less about him shooting or not. I could care less about the amount of assists he gets or not, as long as he's making the correct choices. Good decision making.

I'll also be the first one to tell you, that if the dude was scorer and was scoring a decent amount of points in the games, I could stomach his contributions and lack of good decision making better. But since he doesn't have this, all he has to his advantage is his basketball smarts... which are lacking.

I know the kid is young, and he should be better as time goes on. But things are what they are currently. And his lack of apparent progress is disapointing.

[nickagneta]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

Poor decision making. That's the most important part of a PG, which in my opinion renders all those other good stats meaningless.

Assists per game - This might simply tell me that he has great finishers in the team AND that he passes up on a ton of shots. We know this to be true.

Assist-to-tunerover ratio - Since the assist per game is meaningless as pointed out above and as we know he's among the leaders in turnovers, then this is really nothing to brag about.

Rebounds per game - now this is really good.

Steals - We all know that he's a gambler, and we also know his deficiencies defensively... so do we really care that he gets all these steals when overall he's not playing good defense? Misleading stat in my opinion.

So my point is, how meaningful are these stats really when Rondo is concerned, when applied in the correct context after watching the games? What good is it for Rondo to be this high in some of these stats among PGs when the most crucial aspect of his game is missing (decision making)?

I'll let you know what those stats tell me. They tell me that Rondo certainly has the capability to be special; to have a great impact in the game. But as it regards in running a team (which is what we're interested in), he's still lacking which is a shame.

That's basically what I was trying to point out. He has the capabilities to be special. The fact that he can put up these types of numbers when not playing even close to his best proves that. But you are right, until his decision making regarding when to shoot, when to distribute, when to gamble and when to just straight up man the heck out of your guy improves, he will never reach the potential I think we all see is clearly there.

It was a short summer and it appears to me his work he put in was in putting on a few pounds of muscle and getting stronger to take the beating his type of game will have on him. Obviously in doing so he allowed other aspects of his game lax and it has cost him. I expect by mid season it will work itself out.

But this team will go as far as good PG play will allow it to go. The Big Three can play unbelievable basketball and without Rondo playing to at least the level he did late last year, they will not be able to win the title. This team needs a competent, good decision making Rondo that can hit the occasional baseline jumper from 15-18 feet.

[ChampKind]

Even Tommy, the biggest Rondo fanboy, didn't like his play. Rondo is basically Ben Wallace on offense. He may get a couple buckets off of cuts but besides that he's useless. I'm putting this loss on him. I think he's had more missed layups and airballs than FG this year.

Yes.  Let's "here" them.  Very credible.

[rondilla]

So, by your assesment as long as Rondo is not turning the ball over more than some of the rest of our team, he's fine?

In a per48 context, he's 20th in the league in turnovers among PG's. And I don't think your assesment that they're taking the ball away from Rondo is correct. This was true early last season, but it is not the case right now.

But lets assume you're correct, then by your estimation his turnovers should not be this high because he's really not participating much in the offense. If he were, then his turnovers would increase. So, you can say that your results don't really depict how much Rondo takes care of the ball. It simply might depict that he doesn't have the ball enough in our offense to even have a chance at causing a turnover. But as I said, this is really not correct. Rondo's is very involved in the offense... more than I would like.

Also, Rondo is the one calling plays. Rondo is running the offense, and it has been this way since the later portion of last season and during the playoffs. That he has the ball in his hand this often, and making poor decisions with the ball in addition to not being a threat to the opponent is precisely why he shouldn't have the ball as often as he does.

I''l take this point by point

1. Rondo is 20th in turnovers, per 48 by a point guard? That's nice. He also happens to be 8th in assists, per 48 by a point guard. Only four of the point guards in the league who have more assists than he does actually have a better assist to turnover ratio. That is being a very efficient passer.

2. His turnovers are where they are because he is aggressive with his passing when he has teh chance. Doesn't get that manyy, but when he dopes he makes the most of it. While this offensive scheme usually forces him to either simply pass the ball off, or make difficult feed passes which don't usually result in assists because the Big Three don't go right into their shots (assist to bad pass counts against all bad passes, no matter if an assist would have been generated or not), Rajon has a 4.8 mark, which is VERY respectable. Let's check out the others, why don't we

Ray Allen 1.9
Pierce 2.3
Garnett 2.1
Perk 1.3
House 1.8
Tony Allen has a 7.0, but he also has 7 total assists and has just been looking to score.

Compare Rondo's 4.8 to some of the other leaders in assists

Paul 7.1
Kidd 4.5
Nash 2.8
Duhon 6.9
B. Davis 4.1

Pretty solid in comparison

He is 57th, amongst all point guards, in usage. Only Jason Kidd and Duhon are near him in that stat amongst all point guards. What do those guys have in common with Rondo? They also have the advantage in playing in offensive systems which are much faster paced than ours.

3. If Rondo was more involved his turnovers would ceratainly increase, but not by as much as his assists would go up, and also his scoring. Kind of funny how Rondo played great last season when Ray and Garnett went down, huh? According to your way of thinking, by giving him the ball more it should have hurt him, right? What actually happened, though, was that his efficiency went way UP. The team offense did as well, by the way. That 9 game stretch with Garnett was one of our best stretches of the year last season - in scoring, field goal percentage and turnovers. Rondo scored 16 ppg, shooting 53-55%, didn't turn the ball over much, and played like an animal. The team went 7 and 2, losing two extremely tight road games in Cleveland and Orlando.... where we also lost BY MORE points with Garnett. Am I saying that K.G. hurt us offensively? No, just not having Rondo involved enough did. Losing Garnett was offset by actually using Rondo the right way. We missed K.G.'s defense. The offense actually improved.

That is what drive me up the pole. Doc actually knows how to do this. He just doesn't want to. In his offensive world the wings run the show and the point guard is the dude who stands in the corner spotting up for threes. We turned the ball over too much last season, and it is even worse now.

4. Rondo is running the offense which Doc tells him to run. In fact Doc specifically said just that in a recent interview. Dribbling the ball down the court, handing the ball of to Paul and Ray and clearing to the weakside is Doc's base offense. I especially like the Ray Allen 10 second play where 10 seconds get wasted setting a triple pick so that Rondo can pass Ray the ball, not to actually SHOOT it, but so that Ray can be a playmaker.

[BballTim]

Rondo currently ranks:

- 9th in the NBA with 6.6 assists per game
- 14th in the NBA with a 3.04 assists per turnover ratio
- 10th in the NBA amongst PGs with 3.6 rebounds per game(this will improve as he was second in this number last year).
- 9th in the NBA with 2.04 steals per game

I think those are pretty good numbers. I also believe that his rebounds and steals numbers are only going to get better.

Rondo's biggest problem right now is his shooting and decision making as to when to shoot and when to distribute when driving. Also, am having tremendous problems with his finishes as his floater and short shots off the glass during drives have been awful. If he could fix those and get those falling in a high percentage, this team will live with his poor outside shooting.

Poor decision making. That's the most important part of a PG, which in my opinion renders all those other good stats meaningless.

Assists per game - This might simply tell me that he has great finishers in the team AND that he passes up on a ton of shots. We know this to be true.

Assist-to-tunerover ratio - Since the assist per game is meaningless as pointed out above and as we know he's among the leaders in turnovers, then this is really nothing to brag about.

  This year at least Rondo doesn't have great finishers. The team is below average in fg%. In spite of Rondo's shooting issues he's getting his teammates plenty of open looks. His passing is well above average and has improved quite a bit from last year. His defense is above average most nights. I'd expect his shooting to improve.

  And 20th in the league is among the leaders? Please.

[dark_lord]

So, by your assesment as long as Rondo is not turning the ball over more than some of the rest of our team, he's fine?

In a per48 context, he's 20th in the league in turnovers among PG's. And I don't think your assesment that they're taking the ball away from Rondo is correct. This was true early last season, but it is not the case right now.

But lets assume you're correct, then by your estimation his turnovers should not be this high because he's really not participating much in the offense. If he were, then his turnovers would increase. So, you can say that your results don't really depict how much Rondo takes care of the ball. It simply might depict that he doesn't have the ball enough in our offense to even have a chance at causing a turnover. But as I said, this is really not correct. Rondo's is very involved in the offense... more than I would like.

Also, Rondo is the one calling plays. Rondo is running the offense, and it has been this way since the later portion of last season and during the playoffs. That he has the ball in his hand this often, and making poor decisions with the ball in addition to not being a threat to the opponent is precisely why he shouldn't have the ball as often as he does.

I''l take this point by point

1. Rondo is 20th in turnovers, per 48 by a point guard? That's nice. He also happens to be 8th in assists, per 48 by a point guard. Only four of the point guards in the league who have more assists than he does actually have a better assist to turnover ratio. That is being a very efficient passer.

2. His turnovers are where they are because he is aggressive with his passing when he has teh chance. Doesn't get that manyy, but when he dopes he makes the most of it. While this offensive scheme usually forces him to either simply pass the ball off, or make difficult feed passes which don't usually result in assists because the Big Three don't go right into their shots (assist to bad pass counts against all bad passes, no matter if an assist would have been generated or not), Rajon has a 4.8 mark, which is VERY respectable. Let's check out the others, why don't we

Ray Allen 1.9
Pierce 2.3
Garnett 2.1
Perk 1.3
House 1.8
Tony Allen has a 7.0, but he also has 7 total assists and has just been looking to score.

Compare Rondo's 4.8 to some of the other leaders in assists

Paul 7.1
Kidd 4.5
Nash 2.8
Duhon 6.9
B. Davis 4.1

Pretty solid in comparison

He is 57th, amongst all point guards, in usage. Only Jason Kidd and Duhon are near him in that stat amongst all point guards. What do those guys have in common with Rondo? They also have the advantage in playing in offensive systems which are much faster paced than ours.

3. If Rondo was more involved his turnovers would ceratainly increase, but not by as much as his assists would go up, and also his scoring. Kind of funny how Rondo played great last season when Ray and Garnett went down, huh? According to your way of thinking, by giving him the ball more it should have hurt him, right? What actually happened, though, was that his efficiency went way UP. The team offense did as well, by the way. That 9 game stretch with Garnett was one of our best stretches of the year last season - in scoring, field goal percentage and turnovers. Rondo scored 16 ppg, shooting 53-55%, didn't turn the ball over much, and played like an animal. The team went 7 and 2, losing two extremely tight road games in Cleveland and Orlando.... where we also lost BY MORE points with Garnett. Am I saying that K.G. hurt us offensively? No, just not having Rondo involved enough did. Losing Garnett was offset by actually using Rondo the right way. We missed K.G.'s defense. The offense actually improved.

That is what drive me up the pole. Doc actually knows how to do this. He just doesn't want to. In his offensive world the wings run the show and the point guard is the dude who stands in the corner spotting up for threes. We turned the ball over too much last season, and it is even worse now.

4. Rondo is running the offense which Doc tells him to run. In fact Doc specifically said just that in a recent interview. Dribbling the ball down the court, handing the ball of to Paul and Ray and clearing to the weakside is Doc's base offense. I especially like the Ray Allen 10 second play where 10 seconds get wasted setting a triple pick so that Rondo can pass Ray the ball, not to actually SHOOT it, but so that Ray can be a playmaker.

sounds like MikeD, only without the condescending/rude undertone.

great post!

[housecall]

ive noticed in the last few games and maybe its been longer Rondo is always at  the 3pt range when crunch time of a game to take shots,Why?I just want someone to explain why he is there and if thats the play Doc is calling,why?Rondo is the last guy on the court who should be waiting on the perimeter to take a three.I understand they have to or try spreading the floor in situations but they need to figure out where he can better take a shot, if it comes down to it?

[crownsy]

ive noticed in the last few games and maybe its been longer Rondo is always at  the 3pt range when crunch time of a game to take shots,Why?I just want someone to explain why he is there and if thats the play Doc is calling,why?Rondo is the last guy on the court who should be waiting on the perimeter to take a three.I understand they have to or try spreading the floor in situations but they need to figure out where he can better take a shot, if it comes down to it?

he stands just inside the line, his "shot" if you want to credit him with a better than other one, is 18ft from the right side.

thats his hot spot, very realitivly speaking, as a shooter.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I'm pretty sure he's MikeD myself hehe.

But I'll take his posts with a grain of salt when it regards Rondo. We all know that in his eyes Rondo can apparently do no wrong. It surely has to be someone else's fault. It can't possibly be that Rondo is simply making poor choices out there, it certainly can't be. It has to be Doc who keeps messing with this kid.