Another reason why Rondo is better than Chris Paul

[EJPLAYA]

If you poll the nation, not just Celtics fans (obviously biased towards own player), to choose between Paul and Rondo, I can guarantee you more chooses Paul, and rightfully so.

  By the same token if you poll the nation, not just Celtics fans, to choose the best player on the Celts since 2009 or so I can guarantee that they'd choose Rondo. Does that mean anything in the discussions here?

And if you poll the nation about the best player on the Suns you'll see they choose Goran Dragic.  Does that mean that HE is better than CP3 as well?! Your argument doesn't work.  I don't disagree that Rondo isn't currently the best player on the team due to PP and KG's slip in play due to their age. (although if he is better than PP it is barely) That does not mean however that you can build a championship team with him as the centerpiece. If there were a way to bring in 3 superstars without trading away Rondo then I'd be all for it. PG isn't a required position to be elite at in order to win it all. A solid player at that spot will do. Dragic for example at PG in 2008 would have won it as well.

  A solid pg is fine, as long as you have a LeBron/Kobe/MJ/TD/Bird or the like in their prime. Get one of those players and we're fine. I just don't see it happening in the near future, and I don't think it makes sense to base personnel moves on what I'd do if I had a player like that when I don't.

Yes. It isn't easy to pick one of those players up, however keep Rondo on this team and it will be impossible. As has been said here before, Rondo is good enough to keep us out of the first 3-4 picks. Of this group you mention, none of them would be had with a pick in the 5-15 spot anymore due to rule changes. Kobe would have had to have gone to school for one season and definitely would have gone higher than 13 after a year in school. Bird wouldn't have been able to declare and then go back to school after being drafted like he did and definitely would have gone higher than 6th.

Fact is, you don't get superstars in the NBA unless you draft them in the first few picks, or pick them up as they are on their decline and their team feels they need to move on and rebuild like KG's situation. With Rondo we are bad enough to miss the playoffs, but good enough to not be in the top 3 spots. That is a recipe for long term nothingness like we experienced after Bird retired. You know it is, you'd just rather try and win an argument than admit it. Fortunately since Ainge was trying to move KG, PP, and Rondo at the trade deadline, HE knows it and is doing everything he can to prevent it.

[CelticConcourse]

If you poll the nation, not just Celtics fans (obviously biased towards own player), to choose between Paul and Rondo, I can guarantee you more chooses Paul, and rightfully so.

I'm actually pretty sure that plenty of non-celtics fans would vote for Rondo (he's highly praised everywhere else than Boston), while Celtics fan would vote for Paul. That's the problem with this awkward fanbase.

A nation-wide poll asking who the best PG in the league is between Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Rajon Rondo, Kyrie Irving, Tony Parker, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Ricky Rubio, Jru Holiday and Ty Lawson.... how confident are you that Rondo even finishes in the top 5?

Si.com... "Top 10 Point Guards" as of March 2013:  http://nba.si.com/2013/03/02/top-ten-point-guards-chris-paul-tony-parker-russell-westbrook-kyrie-irving-derrick-rose/

Rondo finishes 6th.

  That doesn't look like a poll, just one guy's opinion.

  How about all-star voting for point guards?

  East
Rajon Rondo (Bos) 924,180
Deron Williams (BKN) 449,791
Kyrie Irving (Cle) 445,730
Raymond Felton (NYK) 105,340
Jrue Holiday (Phi) 103,146

  West
Chris Paul (LAC) 929,155
Jeremy Lin (Hou) 883,809
Russell Westbrook (OKC) 376,411
Steve Nash (LAL) 270,741
Tony Parker (SA) 176,168
Stephen Curry (GS) 169,083
Ricky Rubio (Min) 150,227

  Getting more than twice the votes of anyone else in the east  and 3-4 times the vote of half or so of your listed players throws a little "ice water" on your claim.

  An aside, but shouldn't celtics fans be aware of such things? I mean I didn't like Ray's game at all last year but I'm familiar enough with him to realize that the average nba fan saw him more as a fringe all-star than the below average player I thought he was.

I agree with a lot of what you said.

[BballTim]

If you poll the nation, not just Celtics fans (obviously biased towards own player), to choose between Paul and Rondo, I can guarantee you more chooses Paul, and rightfully so.

  By the same token if you poll the nation, not just Celtics fans, to choose the best player on the Celts since 2009 or so I can guarantee that they'd choose Rondo. Does that mean anything in the discussions here?

And if you poll the nation about the best player on the Suns you'll see they choose Goran Dragic.  Does that mean that HE is better than CP3 as well?! Your argument doesn't work.  I don't disagree that Rondo isn't currently the best player on the team due to PP and KG's slip in play due to their age. (although if he is better than PP it is barely) That does not mean however that you can build a championship team with him as the centerpiece. If there were a way to bring in 3 superstars without trading away Rondo then I'd be all for it. PG isn't a required position to be elite at in order to win it all. A solid player at that spot will do. Dragic for example at PG in 2008 would have won it as well.

  A solid pg is fine, as long as you have a LeBron/Kobe/MJ/TD/Bird or the like in their prime. Get one of those players and we're fine. I just don't see it happening in the near future, and I don't think it makes sense to base personnel moves on what I'd do if I had a player like that when I don't.

Yes. It isn't easy to pick one of those players up, however keep Rondo on this team and it will be impossible. As has been said here before, Rondo is good enough to keep us out of the first 3-4 picks. Of this group you mention, none of them would be had with a pick in the 5-15 spot anymore due to rule changes. Kobe would have had to have gone to school for one season and definitely would have gone higher than 13 after a year in school. Bird wouldn't have been able to declare and then go back to school after being drafted like he did and definitely would have gone higher than 6th.

Fact is, you don't get superstars in the NBA unless you draft them in the first few picks, or pick them up as they are on their decline and their team feels they need to move on and rebuild like KG's situation. With Rondo we are bad enough to miss the playoffs, but good enough to not be in the top 3 spots. That is a recipe for long term nothingness like we experienced after Bird retired. You know it is, you'd just rather try and win an argument than admit it. Fortunately since Ainge was trying to move KG, PP, and Rondo at the trade deadline, HE knows it and is doing everything he can to prevent it.

  The bulk of the long term nothingness for the Celts came after they went into full tank mode for Duncan and came up empty. If you start looking at teams (post MJ, who was drafted 30 years ago) who were the best player on a title team for the team that drafted them you're pretty much looking a Duncan and possibly Wade. If you look at other teams it's happened to (Dirk, Kobe, possibly PP) you're talking about teams who stuck with their star players for 10 or so years without really contending. Let's face it, the "tank if you're not contending" faction would have been pushing for those teams to dump those players who made their teams too good for a high draft pick but not good enough to win a title long before those title teams were put together.

  Edit: You could argue the Kobe/Shaq years for Kobe although they already had a superstar in place when they drafted Kobe and he wasn't really good enough to lead any of those teams to titles if he didn't already have Shaq when he joined the Lakers. If Charlotte had kept him, for example, they wouldn't have become serious contenders in a big hurry.