I do think there is some concern about our starting unit the past few games. So far it hasn't produced very well for us.
I think that is more what's going on than Rondo's individual play.
Yeah, the bench has bailed out the starters during much of this winning streak. Which is both good and bad.
But Rondo definitely has been underwhelming recently. Seems like a totally different player than earlier in the season when he was racking up double digit assist games every night.
However, the Celtics are playing better. So one can't help but wonder if the Celtics are better with Rondo averaging 8-8-2?
They're playing better on defense but worse on offense. I don't see why having a worse offense is a good thing, even if we're winning now.
Well, I'll readily admit that I have no idea what correlation, if any, there is between Rondo's play and the team's resurgence.
But I have noticed that the starters seem to come in and start off slow, and then things pick up once the bench guys get in the game. Usually that pick-up is characterized by players getting out in transition more, and the ball moving around a lot more in the half-court. To the extent that Rondo sometimes seems to slow things down maybe a bit too much and hold onto the ball for a while, making it more of a 2 or 3 man game versus a 5 man game offensively, I think that could hurt them at times.
I guess what I'm trying to say, to answer your query, is that though the Celtics haven't been great overall offensively during this stretch, they've had some really great runs that have given them leads. Usually those runs are easy buckets fueled by defensive stops. Rondo has been a big part of that, at times.
But I also notice that when the bench is in, and we have a sort of "run the offense by committee" thing going with Lee, Terry, Bradley, Green, etc, it seems like that actually creates some easier opportunities, especially ones closer to the rim (for guys like Green, Sullinger, and KG).
Take that for what it's worth.