if stealer's aren't great defenders in your book, i find it hard to defend rondo at number 4 and no pierce, perhaps one of the most underrated SF's at taking charges in the league.....
I was gonna say the same thing. At this point in his carreer, Rondo is still more of a "big play defender" rather than a "lock down defender". To me, that doesn't put him in the top 10.
I am surprised no one has listed Deron Williams. He is one of the most solid PG defenders out there.
Then you guys have no idea how important Rajon is in our defensive system. Is quickness, harassment and defensive abilities enable him to stay in front of his man and more often than not be a pest for the opposition point guard...
I might be biased in my ranking as a Celtics fan but telling me that rondo isn't a very good defender is unbelievable! Especially from Celtics fans ! KG is the master piece of our D but without Rondo and Perkins the defensive excellence we reached this year would have only been a dream!
Baron Davis and Chris Paul are gamblers who get more steals than Rondo but are 10 times less efficient than Rondo defensively speaking...
Dont remember if it was coming from KG or Doc but one of them said that sometimes just having Rondo pressure the ball handler after timeouts made teams go away from the offensive plan they just prepared before...
That's says a lot to me!
Moreover, what I meant but penalizing stealers and shoot blockers was targeting the one who gambled about it... KG is a great shoot blocker but still is (or should be) everyone's number 1 in this list... So Rondo having some steals in his stats should not deprive him from being one of the most efficient defenders in this league THIS YEAR !!
And please, let's all forget about words like "at this point of his career" or "no playoffs experience" or "too young.." Either you know how to ball or you don't !!!
Rondo knows how to ball and especially defend... no matter the number of years he has under his belt...