Rajon Rondo: Great Defender?

[BballTim]

Get this out of here.

Our whole defense is put towards stopping Kobe.

Fisher was 50% tonight, 00% from outside, and down the stretch he was being played different every time.

...you putting your frustration in the wrong place.

Still, how can you explain Derek Fisher being the guy that buries us late in the game?  Who is responsible for that?

  They're running picks where he goes right into the shot from the pick. It's almost impossible for anyone to defend the play. Not to mention that Kobe seemed to be able to tangle up Rondo with the ref's approval.

  Fisher's having his worst offensive series of the playoffs and he's really only had one good part of a quarter in 3 games. Before the 4th quarter he was 6-21 for the series including 0-5 on threes. I don't think that translates into Rondo being a poor defender.

[BballTim]

Can somebody PLEASE justify this to me?  He makes some amazing blocks, steals, and various other defensive plays at times, but then Derek Fisher torches the Celtics in the 4th quarter of the biggest game so far this year.  How can you explain that? 

If there's one player on the Lakers we shouldn't have to worry about, it ought to be Derek Fisher.  But he killed us tonight.  Unless he's being covered by somebody other than Rondo, how does Rondo maintain his "great defender" cred while still allowing those kinds of performances from opposing point guards who aren't known for being transcendant offensive players?

  Looking at the highlights, Fisher made 5 baskets and Rondo wasn't covering him on 3 of those. One of the other 2 could be seen as possibly Rondo's fault although Davis was right in front of Fisher when he shot it.

[LB3533]

I think because of the "cross-matching" Rondo is guarding Kobe maybe?

[wdleehi]

The defensive rotation was pretty bad at that point. 

[ajgoodman]

Trying to criticize Rondo here is a lost cause.
I agree with you, Rondo's defensive prowess is vastly over-rated.  The steal numbers are fabricated by the obscene amount of gambles he takes that more often than not don't pay off. He could be a great one on one defender if he wanted to be, but it's pretty [dang] obvious by his body language that he just doesn't want to give the effort on the defensive end. 

He played a poor Game 3, but most of our nation is still going to be bowing down to their golden boy.

Anyone remember Jameer Nelson's offensive explosions in the last few games of the conference finals?

I love Rondo a lot of the time, but he frustrates the living hell out of me pretty often.

[wdleehi]

Trying to criticize Rondo here is a lost cause.
I agree with you, Rondo's defensive prowess is vastly over-rated.  The steal numbers are fabricated by the obscene amount of gambles he takes that more often than not don't pay off. He could be a great one on one defender if he wanted to be, but it's pretty [dang] obvious by his body language that he just doesn't want to give the effort on the defensive end. 

He played a poor Game 3, but most of our nation is still going to be bowing down to their golden boy.

Anyone remember Jameer Nelson's offensive explosions in the last few games of the conference finals?

I love Rondo a lot of the time, but he frustrates the living hell out of me pretty often.

Rondo's issues last night was he was not aggressive enough on offense, not because he was terrible on defense. 

[ajgoodman]

Trying to criticize Rondo here is a lost cause.
I agree with you, Rondo's defensive prowess is vastly over-rated.  The steal numbers are fabricated by the obscene amount of gambles he takes that more often than not don't pay off. He could be a great one on one defender if he wanted to be, but it's pretty [dang] obvious by his body language that he just doesn't want to give the effort on the defensive end. 

He played a poor Game 3, but most of our nation is still going to be bowing down to their golden boy.

Anyone remember Jameer Nelson's offensive explosions in the last few games of the conference finals?

I love Rondo a lot of the time, but he frustrates the living hell out of me pretty often.

Rondo's issues last night was he was not aggressive enough on offense, not because he was terrible on defense. 

That is true, but I'm not just talking about the Rondo we saw last night.