Is Rondo Too Worried About Assists?

[Roy H.]

Another interesting stat:  Rondo has only gotten to the free throw line for 4+ attempts in seven games this year.  The Celtics are 7-0 in those games.

As pearljammer said, the Celtics are at their best when Rondo is distributing *and* penetrating.  Generally, one opens up more room for the other.

[Celtics18]

Here are some more stats to contemplate:

Overall offensive stats for the Celtics:

FG%: 50.3, 3pt%: 39.0, APG: 24.7, TOPG: 13.7, A/TO: 1.80, PPG: 99.5

Offensive stats in 11 games without Rondo:

FG%: 47.8, 3pt%: 33.1, APG: 21.6, TOPG: 14.2, A/TO: 1.52, PPG: 93.6

[2dark]

  Last season he scored more points because KG and PP had injury issues. I think that showed that he can score, not that it's our best option.

  Not sure if anyone's brought it up yet, but when Rondo's been out we were 7-4. When he has less than 10 assists we're 3-3. When he has 10 or more assists we're 20-2, with the only losses coming to Dallas (on the road, 5th game in 7 nights) and the Houston game.

If you hit majority of your shots after the pass Rondo will have +1 assist and team will have +2/+3 on the board, if you miss Rondo wil not have that assist and you will not have those points.
Besides few flashes from Shaq our bigs are not doing their job from the inside (specially w/o KG) so we have to shoot more.
Compare shooting percentages on the night Rondo had 10+ assists with nights he had less than 10 and you ll see that statistics you wrote are only logical and that we heavily depend on outside shooting.

[Jon]

I think that at times Rondo doesn't shoot enough.  But the only way that this team functions well on a chemistry level is if Rondo is going to be playing like this most of the time.  I don't see the plethora of scorers on this team being very happy if Rondo started launching 25 shots a game. 

[snively]

He certainly does enjoy the assist about 5x more than the score.  But when you've got efficiency demons like Ray, Paul, Shaq and KG to pass to, you couldn't ask for a better mentality.

[GreenEnvy]

He certainly does enjoy the assist about 5x more than the score.  But when you've got efficiency demons like Ray, Paul, Shaq and KG to pass to, you couldn't ask for a better mentality.

But when you factor in BBD, I think he needs to look for his own shot before swinging the ball to him. And I think he is now. It looks like he sees BBD open, then looks at the other 3 guys on the court before passing to him lol.

[j804]

These past couple games Doc has got on him about shooting it seems, and it's nice to see. No one expects him to lead the team in shots taken but at times - you have got to shoot the short jumper when wide open or take it to the hoop and he's done that as of late.

This is exactly what I and lots of people on here have been lobbying for, you can see his confidence building up as well so that's good. He's actually been clutch a few times down the stretch.

[BballTim]

  Last season he scored more points because KG and PP had injury issues. I think that showed that he can score, not that it's our best option.

  Not sure if anyone's brought it up yet, but when Rondo's been out we were 7-4. When he has less than 10 assists we're 3-3. When he has 10 or more assists we're 20-2, with the only losses coming to Dallas (on the road, 5th game in 7 nights) and the Houston game.

If you hit majority of your shots after the pass Rondo will have +1 assist and team will have +2/+3 on the board, if you miss Rondo wil not have that assist and you will not have those points.
Besides few flashes from Shaq our bigs are not doing their job from the inside (specially w/o KG) so we have to shoot more.
Compare shooting percentages on the night Rondo had 10+ assists with nights he had less than 10 and you ll see that statistics you wrote are only logical and that we heavily depend on outside shooting.

  We're near the bottom of the league in field goal attempts per game but we're first in the league in inside shots made per game and top 5 in inside shots attempted per game.

[BballTim]

  By the way, they did a study on 82games about the value of a potential assist where they charted things like shot attempts (made and missed), times fouled shooting and turnovers from "potential assists":

http://www.82games.com/assisted.htm

  Here are a few snippets from the article:
_____________________

  "a shot that comes by virtue of an "assist worthy" pass had an over 8% better chance of going in for the sample we looked at"
_____________________

  "The value of the potential assist could also be stated in this fashion:

+.25 points for every Close Shot
+.19 points for Two-Point Jump Shots
+.14 points per Dunk Shot
+.10 points per Three-Pointer

...or +.16 points on average"
_______________________

  "If you conjure up a simple points per 100 possessions (omitting the offensive rebound implications), you find it looks like this:

110.4 - w/Potential Assist
  81.9 - not assisted "
_________________________

  "Throw out the turnovers then and just look at a points per shot number and it's:

1.17 - w/Potential Assist
1.04 - not assisted"
________________________

 

[Roy H.]

  By the way, they did a study on 82games about the value of a potential assist where they charted things like shot attempts (made and missed), times fouled shooting and turnovers from "potential assists":

http://www.82games.com/assisted.htm

  Here are a few snippets from the article:
_____________________

  "a shot that comes by virtue of an "assist worthy" pass had an over 8% better chance of going in for the sample we looked at"
_____________________

  "The value of the potential assist could also be stated in this fashion:

+.25 points for every Close Shot
+.19 points for Two-Point Jump Shots
+.14 points per Dunk Shot
+.10 points per Three-Pointer

...or +.16 points on average"
_______________________

  "If you conjure up a simple points per 100 possessions (omitting the offensive rebound implications), you find it looks like this:

110.4 - w/Potential Assist
  81.9 - not assisted "
_________________________

  "Throw out the turnovers then and just look at a points per shot number and it's:

1.17 - w/Potential Assist
1.04 - not assisted"
________________________

 

It's interesting, but to get specifically at the OP's point, I think you'd need to look at specific situations, such as:

"What yields more points, a Rajon Rondo inside drive and shot attempt, or a pass to an open Glen Davis?"

I don't think Rondo "looks for assists" in most instances, and I think some critics underrate his passing ability; he's not just getting assists by making easy passes along the perimeter, but in fact is making some amazing passes to get guys baskets they otherwise couldn't have made.  At the same time, I wish Rondo would look for his own shot more (usually at times where there isn't a clear assist possibility.)

[BballTim]

It's interesting, but to get specifically at the OP's point, I think you'd need to look at specific situations, such as:

"What yields more points, a Rajon Rondo inside drive and shot attempt, or a pass to an open Glen Davis?"

  That's not the simplest of questions. Rondo shoots at a high percentage from the inside, but part of that obviously depends on his decision making about when to drive and when not to. Having Davis on the floor would make it harder for Rondo to drive if the defense is set.

  Kind of an aside, but it's fairly interesting that a very common criticism of Rondo is that he hurts the offense by not taking those outside jumpers when he's given them by the defense. But at the same time people don't seem to want a wide open Glen Davis to take the exact same shot, and it clearly doesn't help our offense to have Glen's man in or near the paint instead of covering Davis. Glen takes jumper after jumper and he's still left open by the defense, while people somehow think that Rondo taking more of those shots will make the defense stick with him and worry less about the threat of his driving or passing. But I digress.

[Celtics18]

  Last season he scored more points because KG and PP had injury issues. I think that showed that he can score, not that it's our best option.

  Not sure if anyone's brought it up yet, but when Rondo's been out we were 7-4. When he has less than 10 assists we're 3-3. When he has 10 or more assists we're 20-2, with the only losses coming to Dallas (on the road, 5th game in 7 nights) and the Houston game.

If you hit majority of your shots after the pass Rondo will have +1 assist and team will have +2/+3 on the board, if you miss Rondo wil not have that assist and you will not have those points.
Besides few flashes from Shaq our bigs are not doing their job from the inside (specially w/o KG) so we have to shoot more.
Compare shooting percentages on the night Rondo had 10+ assists with nights he had less than 10 and you ll see that statistics you wrote are only logical and that we heavily depend on outside shooting.

  We're near the bottom of the league in field goal attempts per game but we're first in the league in inside shots made per game and top 5 in inside shots attempted per game.

Yes.  And we are also at the top of the league in fg% on those shots at the rim, and number one in percentage of interior shots which are assisted.

This helps the argument (which I think is the one you and 82games were making in the following post) that an assisted shot is a better shot than a non-assisted shot.

[Meadowlark_Scal]

Well, even a star can have an off night...He IS under the microscope EVERY game...He is supposed to be the setup guy. That is a true point guard. What rose does is not a pg. Lucky for rose the refs love him...he would get 1/2 the points if the refs called it straight..but we know that is already a problem.

[BballTim]

  Last season he scored more points because KG and PP had injury issues. I think that showed that he can score, not that it's our best option.

  Not sure if anyone's brought it up yet, but when Rondo's been out we were 7-4. When he has less than 10 assists we're 3-3. When he has 10 or more assists we're 20-2, with the only losses coming to Dallas (on the road, 5th game in 7 nights) and the Houston game.

If you hit majority of your shots after the pass Rondo will have +1 assist and team will have +2/+3 on the board, if you miss Rondo wil not have that assist and you will not have those points.
Besides few flashes from Shaq our bigs are not doing their job from the inside (specially w/o KG) so we have to shoot more.
Compare shooting percentages on the night Rondo had 10+ assists with nights he had less than 10 and you ll see that statistics you wrote are only logical and that we heavily depend on outside shooting.

  We're near the bottom of the league in field goal attempts per game but we're first in the league in inside shots made per game and top 5 in inside shots attempted per game.

Yes.  And we are also at the top of the league in fg% on those shots at the rim, and number one in percentage of interior shots which are assisted.

This helps the argument (which I think is the one you and 82games were making in the following post) that an assisted shot is a better shot than a non-assisted shot.

  Yeah, a lot of people claim that Rondo has an easy time getting assists because the players hit their shots. I think it's more the case that the players hit their shots so well because of his passing. I wrote this in another thread, but Ray's hitting about 35% of his threes in the games Rondo's missed and he's hitting over 50% of his threes in the games where Rondo's played.

[JerseyKid.]

  Last season he scored more points because KG and PP had injury issues. I think that showed that he can score, not that it's our best option.

  Not sure if anyone's brought it up yet, but when Rondo's been out we were 7-4. When he has less than 10 assists we're 3-3. When he has 10 or more assists we're 20-2, with the only losses coming to Dallas (on the road, 5th game in 7 nights) and the Houston game.

If you hit majority of your shots after the pass Rondo will have +1 assist and team will have +2/+3 on the board, if you miss Rondo wil not have that assist and you will not have those points.
Besides few flashes from Shaq our bigs are not doing their job from the inside (specially w/o KG) so we have to shoot more.
Compare shooting percentages on the night Rondo had 10+ assists with nights he had less than 10 and you ll see that statistics you wrote are only logical and that we heavily depend on outside shooting.

  We're near the bottom of the league in field goal attempts per game but we're first in the league in inside shots made per game and top 5 in inside shots attempted per game.

Yes.  And we are also at the top of the league in fg% on those shots at the rim, and number one in percentage of interior shots which are assisted.

This helps the argument (which I think is the one you and 82games were making in the following post) that an assisted shot is a better shot than a non-assisted shot.

  Yeah, a lot of people claim that Rondo has an easy time getting assists because the players hit their shots. I think it's more the case that the players hit their shots so well because of his passing. I wrote this in another thread, but Ray's hitting about 35% of his threes in the games Rondo's missed and he's hitting over 50% of his threes in the games where Rondo's played.

Of course he is, a well put pass where the shooter has
A. An open look
B. Ball passed directly into hands so they can catch and shoot
C. Confidence

is going to go in more. Simple as that. Thats why Rondo , is who he is.