just to play devil's advocate here, is anything GP said really that wrong. The Big 3 do make Rondo better than he is (as they would with anyone). Rondo is lucky to play with the Big 3 (as would anyone be). And more importantly, Rondo is inconsistent, tentative, lacks a complete offensive game, etc. Sure GP's tone is uncalled for, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is wrong.
I disagree with the notion that the big 3 make Rondo better. It might be true in the sense that Rondo learns a lot playing with the big 3 and it seemed like Ray took him under his wing last year. But in terms of on court performance, that's not true and the stats back it up.
Last season, when one or more of the big 3 was out, Rondo averaged something like 15 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds. And it wasn't that small of a sample size, it was something like 15-16 games. This year, in the game that KG was out Rondo got 15 points, 7 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. So statistically, Rondo has performed better when one or more of the big 3 are out.
Why would this be the case? Well, when the big 3 are playing, it forces Rondo to play off the ball a lot since the big 3 handle the ball a lot themselves. This forces Rondo to shoot a lot of jumpers which is his weaknesses even though he is wide open. When one or more of the big 3 are out, he gets to have the ball in his hands much more often and be able to penetrate and create shots for himself or others, his main strength. So the idea that the big 3 make Rondo look better is a big myth IMO. That would be true if Rondo's game was like House's where he is a great shooter but can't create a shot for himself so the big 3 have to do it for him, but it's the opposite with Rondo.
I think that Paul, Kevin and Ray can make Rondo better, but not by a whole lot. He isn't like Eddie who needs someone else to set him up. His game is all about speed. Personally I think that the guy who helps Rondo the most is Garnett when Kevin sets the kid picks and works the give and go. Ray and Paul help to space the floor for Rajon, but apart from that they don't really enhance his game that much. They help, they just don't make or break him.
I can see that a lot of people are still banging away with the whole "aggression" thing. Rondo is doing better because he is being ALLOWED to keep the ball. It really isn't much more complicated than that. Our offense for the majority of the season was Rondo dribbling the ball up the court and giving it to Paul and Ray. Not making plays, not getting picks so that he could drive, not running the offense from the top. Those things happened.... on occasion, but mostly it was Paul and Ray running the offense. It seemed to me that Paul and Ray had to, at least once each game, look at an open Rondo and instead decide to turn the ball over. Some games it happened quite a bit. Rondo spectating while we played 4 on 5 basketball. An offensive nightmare. People, including the Celtics themselves, were talking about how our top ranked defense wasn't sharp enough, while our joke of an offense was getting shut down.
Rondo is being allowed to hold onto the ball now and run his offense, and we are scoring like crazy. It isn't an accident. It is really hard to "be aggressive" when you are standing in the weak side corner while your teammates are turning the ball over and refuse to pass it to you. I honestly don't know how he averaged as many assists as he did, he didn't get a whole lot of opportunities to get them.
