So sick of Rondo's laziness

[Fan from VT]

I think we're hitting a problem of team balance.

KG's mobility is down, affecting the team defense and making everyone look a little worse, so mistakes are more notieceable.

Primarily, though, Ray, KG, and Paul all have to work A LOT harder to generate any offense. But Rondo's been our best offense this year, stats-wise.

So we have 2 primarily offensive players who are noticeably below where their offense needs to be, so that slack needs to be picked up by a guy (rondo) who is also expected to bust his butt as the ballstopper at the point of attack every play...not gonna happen. Eventually we'll need to replace our wings with better offense or better defense, not this stuck-in-the-middle that requires Rondo to be option 1 or 2 on offense AND defense.

[BballTim]

The OP simply is not gving enough credit to somebody like Lawson.  Once he has the clear view to the basketball, they isn't much anyone can do to stop him.  Not even someone as quick as Rondo.  Because even if he had sprinted full speed to get in front of Lawsonm, which is no easy feat, then Lawson changes direction and still makes a layup.  Plus, did you not notice Lawson did use his body to shield Rondo.  He would have had to rn through him to get in front.  Face it, Rondo was beat and he made the right play.

About the only thing that Rondo could have hoped for was a foul really.  And what if he get a clear path foul?  Or an And 1?  The liklihood was that Rondo would have made things worse by pushing it there.  

This is probably the right answer here.  What's been lost in the discussion is that it's not that simple for Rondo to "just get in front of the guy".  Rondo is one of the fastest players in the league, but so is Lawson, and Lawson played far fewer minutes, is used to the Denver air, and had a head start on Rajon.  He's also already one of the best players in the league at getting to the basket and converting on a 1 on 1 breakaway.  Letting him go, committing a clear path foul, or committing a foul on the layup that could be an And 1 or called a flagrant were the only real options.  I'm comfortable with what he did there.

I see the point you guys are making.  I just can't imagine someone like Tayshaun Prince giving up on a play like this, even if he was tired.  You lose the ball on a turnover that badly, and if you have pride you fight like hell to make sure it's just a turnover.

I think Rondo had room to get in position, but it's impossible to prove on a message board.  I still think he should have tried.  It's no different then his other matador defensive plays, so it stuck out to me yesterday.

  Can you imagine Paul or Ray or KG giving up on a play like that? Watch them play enough and you will. Same for almost any player on any team.

[BirdNerd]

poor post.  I wish we could moderate this forum topics.   

he is the antithesis of a "lazy" player.   

[cdif911]

look at Rondo, trying to lay down on the job, so lazy!

[sk7326]

I know 90% of the people on here will defend Rondo, but yesterday one play just summed up Rondo for me in a nutshell.

He loses control of the ball, Ty Lawson picks it up and starts off towards the basket.  Rondo could have hustled and tried to get between Lawson and the basket, but instead he ****-foots it sideways and pretends like he's going to block Lawson from behind, but then just pulls up.

A real basketball player would have done whatever he could to get in front of Lawson.  Anyone who says "Lawson is fast, there's no way Rondo could have done that" is wrong.  Lawson wasn't going full-speed, and Rondo was able to stay neck-and-neck with him while running SIDEWAYS.

Rondo then comes down and makes an incredible drive and layup.  And in his mind he probably thought "Now we're even."  In my mind he's a lazy player who doesn't sack up when he makes a turnover and try to make up for it with tough defense.

I will assume this is snark