Slightly, Minutely, a Little Bit Worried About Rondo

[Big Ticket]

I seem to remember when the Celtics picked up Cassell last year, it had a mental effect on Rondo's play.  He seemed to press and rush things, like he was scared to fail knowing they had just signed a veteran backup.  It lasted a few games at least, if I remember correctly, before he eventually came out of it.  Well, not trying at all to panic, so please don't grill me for bringing it up, but I sort of some the same stuff last night (only saw the first half).  Taking a lot of jumpers, looked timid and hesitant to drive and score... if he got that way when 38 year-old Cassell came in, I can only imagine his thoughts/worry when Marbury comes in.  Yeah, he's a championship point guard now, but he's still a kid.  It may just be one bad (shooting) game... can't argue with 17 assists (through only 3 quarters I read? Wow!), but how he reacts to having a little push behind him in the form of a former all star point guard has me just slightly, minutely, little bit worried.  Probably not enough to even bring up... but hey! That's what forums are for!

[celticinorlando]

rondo will be fine. the entire team was out of sync last night. i expect him to do well tomorrow v the pistons

[illantari]

I might sorta, kinda, maybe agree with you just a little.  My totally amateur opinion was that R2 was rushing a bit and looking for his jumper more than driving last night for the first half, and when his jumper didn't fall he just refused to shoot at all in the second.  This is probably only somewhat related to the Pacers' D, although I will say R2 and TJ Ford have this thing where they alternate being good in games (no effect on W-L outcome) and that triple double he dropped on them might have exhausted his "Scoring on TJ Ford" karma for the year.  

At this point I'm not sure it's about his confidence so much as he feels like he needs to prove them wrong about...something.  That he really IS better than Starbury, and that he CAN hit a jump shot, etc, etc, and that gets him out of doing the great things he does normally.  I think he'll get over it, though I'm not sure about timeline (Sam I Am was probably better at mentoring and getting people out of these mindsets).  I'm hoping another good wallop of Devin Harris will be the latest it happens since we have Cleveland coming it after that!

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

I agree, just because we dont know how Marbury will behave behind the scenes and there will be rumblings out there that "Marbury should start" 

Ultimately I think he'll be fine

[twinbree]

I wouldn't worry about Rondo. For one thing, Rondo is a pass first PG so its unrealistic for him to consistently have high scoring games since most days he's more comfortable setting up teammates. I'd be concerned if he wasn't distributing in low scoring games.

Also its much harder to drive when the team cannot space the floor well as is the problem when they lose players who can stretch the defense. He's said he loves playing with Scal because he moves to the corner and usually takes a big defender with him. So with KG and Scal out I don't think he'll be driving much against defenses who pack the paint.

He's a confident player and knows his value to team so I can't imagine he's threatened by Stephon who really can't replace what he brings.

[The4Time2Doctor0]

It may just be one bad (shooting) game... can't argue with 17 assists (through only 3 quarters I read? Wow!), but how he reacts to having a little push behind him in the form of a former all star point guard has me just slightly, minutely, little bit worried. 

dude, you didn't see the game; go take a Dudley.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Rondo has been up and down all year, nothing new here... he'll be up again soon.

If we're going to have these types of concerns everytime we bring a suitable backup, then how good for us is really Rondo?

[ManUp]

It may just be one bad (shooting) game... can't argue with 17 assists (through only 3 quarters I read? Wow!), but how he reacts to having a little push behind him in the form of a former all star point guard has me just slightly, minutely, little bit worried. 

dude, you didn't see the game; go take a Dudley.

In my opinion, Rondo wasn't all that great. Those 17 assists are really misleading, Rondo had an ok game. He wasn't being defended, and he was still reluctant to take any type of shot. He had a bad first half, and an ok second half.

[steve]

They were playing 10 feet off him.  And when he doesn't shoot it throws the whole offense out of whack.  I can't figure out why every team isn't doing this.  Hopefully he'll listen to his coaches and "Shoot the F'n ball"

[BudweiserCeltic]

Doc should do what Pop does with Bonner. If you don't shoot the ball when you're open, you're going right to the bench.

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

They were playing 10 feet off him.  And when he doesn't shoot it throws the whole offense out of whack.  I can't figure out why every team isn't doing this.  Hopefully he'll listen to his coaches and "Shoot the F'n ball"

theres more to basketball then shooting the [dang] ball, he always feels like he can get something better then the jumpshot the team is daring him to shoot.
He's actually been taking that shot alot more lately, and last night his first few didnt drop and he ended up with 17 assits, wwahh lets complain
17 assits and "he threw the team off" ah yes, that makes alot sense

[BballTim]

Rondo has been up and down all year, nothing new here... he'll be up again soon.

If we're going to have these types of concerns everytime we bring a suitable backup, then how good for us is really Rondo?

  Good enough to be a key contributor on a title team, good enough to be seen as one of the best pgs in the league. Aside from that he's hardly worth having on the team. You think we should dump him because some people o this board are speculating that Marbury might have affected his play?

[Scalablob990]

Rondo has been up and down all year, nothing new here... he'll be up again soon.

If we're going to have these types of concerns everytime we bring a suitable backup, then how good for us is really Rondo?

  Good enough to be a key contributor on a title team, good enough to be seen as one of the best pgs in the league. Aside from that he's hardly worth having on the team. You think we should dump him because some people o this board are speculating that Marbury might have affected his play?

Every player in our rotation contributed to getting us the championship last year it wasn't just Rondo, the real question is Rondos inconsistency and what the hell is causing it.

[Scalablob990]

They were playing 10 feet off him.  And when he doesn't shoot it throws the whole offense out of whack.  I can't figure out why every team isn't doing this.  Hopefully he'll listen to his coaches and "Shoot the F'n ball"

They stick Kobe or LBJ on him to psych him out your [dang] well sure he's going to have a very chaotic/bad game.

[Toine43]

They were playing 10 feet off him.  And when he doesn't shoot it throws the whole offense out of whack.  I can't figure out why every team isn't doing this.  Hopefully he'll listen to his coaches and "Shoot the F'n ball"

theres more to basketball then shooting the [dang] ball, he always feels like he can get something better then the jumpshot the team is daring him to shoot.
He's actually been taking that shot alot more lately, and last night his first few didnt drop and he ended up with 17 assits, wwahh lets complain
17 assits and "he threw the team off" ah yes, that makes alot sense

Tattered, I only partially agree with you here. Certainly there's more to basketball than shooting, and Rondo is a great example of this. That's the part where we're on the same page. But actually, despite the 17 dimes, Rondo really didn't play that well last night. For the second game in a row he wasn't able to get the Cs out on the break, and as a result the pace of the game was what the Pacers wanted. He has having major trouble getting to the rack, and he could not stay with Ford AT ALL on defense. The half court offense was having problems against the Pacers d and it had a lot to do with Rondo.

Also, consider that the (granted, KG-less) Celtics were playing against the Dunleavy-less and GRANGER-LESS Pacers, and had trouble with them. And last I checked, the team goes as Rondo goes.