Is Rondo's greatest weakness, actually a strength?

[Carhole]

To start, I am neither a rondo "hater" or a lover (outside of the unabashed manlove I have for him because he is a celtic). I think he is incredibly talented but has an obvious flaw to his game, with a horrendous jump shot. I think he makes some bizzare decisions on the break (going 1 on 4 on the break and giving up possessons) tends to force passes and leaves our defense out to dry too many times by going over picks and trailing his man to attempt a steal. I also believe he is a freak defensively, has tremendous court vision/feel and has an unlimited ceiling if he can ever hit an 8 fter with consistency b/c he can get wherever he wants on the court....

That being said, his lack of a J which maddens/worries me because I have seen that he can be gameplanned into frustration by oppenents with good team defenses (and those tend to be the ones you need to get by come playoff time) might actually be the thing that leads to many of the positives in his game and in our team offense.

He, unlike most all of todays pg's, almost never wants a jump shot. This lack of interest or basically ignoring it as an option drives him to constantly probe offenses which benefits our ball movement, effectivness of player movement, ability to pressure opposition defenses and move the celtics into the penatly quicker..

The question I found myself pondering was, if Rondo had a consistent 17ft would our O be more efficient or less? Would he have developed all of the facets of his game that make him so unique and such a setter of pace within the offense or would we be a team more like last years pistons offensively, which was completely perimeter in orientation and hence easier to contain even with a bunch of great players?

I suppose there is no right or wrong answer and we can never really now - just something to think about

[moiso]

Good question.  It makes sense that if he were comfortable with 17footers he wouldn't penetrate and create quite as much.  I'm sure his assists wouldn't be as high.

[Atzar]

I don't quite agree with you when you question some of his decisions on the fast break.  I think he's actually an excellent fast break PG because of his vision:  if somebody is open on the break, they'll get the ball.

The only scenario in which I repeatedly question his decisions is at the end of quarters or the end of the shot clock.  He invariably ends up faking a couple of times, dribbling the ball between his legs before pulling up for a rushed, off-balance jumper that he's just not good enough to hit with any consistency at all yet.  If that was the shot I was going to get out of a situation, I'd much rather have Paul taking it - he can actually make the shot.

[illantari]

You might be interested in this article (assuming you didn't write it, since it basically makes the same point).

http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2009/02/russells-barber-cant-use-occams-razor.html