Pretty Fantastic Goldsbury Article on Rondo

[D.o.s.]

Rondo’s value is difficult to quantify, in part because he doesn’t fit into our established taxonomy of NBA superstars. He amplifies the goodness around him, but he can’t create it. When we question Rondo’s value, we are actually talking about the value of a pass-first point guard in today’s NBA. The league’s most valuable assets are almost all dominant scorers — everything else they provide is gravy. But Rondo inverts that. He provides assists, defense, rebounds, and only occasional scoring prowess. He’s at his best when he is playmaking for his teammates, but his All-Star years all involved a Hall of Fame supporting cast. The hard part is determining his value when paired with less talented colleagues.

From talk radio to the spreadsheet, context remains largely unheeded in basketball analysis. You can look at Rondo’s career and see the passed-up shots for padded assist tallies and roll your eyes. Or you can read it more like a three-act play. In the first act, the misfit rookie struggled to fit in among an uneven roster. In the second, he suddenly became the NBA’s enigmatic savant, the champion, and the four-time All-Star point god. In Act 3, the hero finds himself onstage with understudies — his star has diminished. How and where will this act end?

On June 17, 2008, the Celtics torched the Lakers to win the NBA Finals in six games. At 22, the kid from Louisville who “couldn’t shoot it” was a key piece of the best team in the NBA. But buried beneath the Ubuntu, and the green-and-white confetti, was Rondo’s greatly improved jumper. He hadn’t morphed into Allen, but he converted his shots at above-average rates. Despite his development, the can’t-shoot reputation persisted through the rest of the Ubuntu era. It lingers today among both fans and opponents who insisted on going under screens, sagging off of him, and almost daring him to shoot the ball.

For Rondo, those tactics are a kind of compliment. “It’s a free shot,” he has said. “I think I’ll always have the ‘make him shoot’ reputation, but that’s more because if you don’t do that, it’s really a problem.”

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/rajon-rondo-boston-celtics-trade-free-agent/

[obnoxiousmime]

I actually had the opposite reaction which was a surprise considering how good Goldsberry's pieces usually are. There's really nothing in this article that any Celtics fan paying attention over the last 8 years didn't already know. Furthermore his access to Rondo didn't yield any interesting quotes or new information.

I'm glad Goldsberry got something else to do besides another strict Xs and Os or statistics piece but this was a very standard Rondo article. Maybe he could have been assigned a more talkative player for his first Grantland profile? I'm sure after about 20 minutes Rondo was ushered away to play Connect Four or something.

[Donoghus]

I actually had the opposite reaction which was a surprise considering how good Goldsberry's pieces usually are. There's really nothing in this article that any Celtics fan paying attention over the last 8 years didn't already know. Furthermore his access to Rondo didn't yield any interesting quotes or new information.

I'm glad Goldsberry got something else to do besides another strict Xs and Os or statistics piece but this was a very standard Rondo article. Maybe he could have been assigned a more talkative player for his first Grantland profile? I'm sure after about 20 minutes Rondo was ushered away to play Connect Four or something.

I agree.  Great read but nothing terribly insightful. 

Nice to think back to that '10 CLE series and how dominant Rondo was.  That video gif of the breakaway is just plain filthy.

[fairweatherfan]

Yes, let's bring that over here, since it was the best thing about the article for me too:



I love the backstory to this, which is that Rondo tried to dunk on LeBron several times in the regular season and got stuffed each time.  Bron was probably expecting the same thing here, but oops!  just got to futilely swipe at the ball in midair instead. 

Kinda reminds me of the old stories about how Russell would let Wilt get away with things in less important games so he could stop them when it counted.

[D.o.s.]

I actually had the opposite reaction which was a surprise considering how good Goldsberry's pieces usually are. There's really nothing in this article that any Celtics fan paying attention over the last 8 years didn't already know. Furthermore his access to Rondo didn't yield any interesting quotes or new information.

I'm glad Goldsberry got something else to do besides another strict Xs and Os or statistics piece but this was a very standard Rondo article. Maybe he could have been assigned a more talkative player for his first Grantland profile? I'm sure after about 20 minutes Rondo was ushered away to play Connect Four or something.

It's a grantland piece -- I don't look to them for actual sports insight. The shot chart evolutions were pretty interesting, but they don't make particularly interesting pull quotes, you know?

[sofutomygaha]

Yes, let's bring that over here, since it was the best thing about the article for me too:



I love the backstory to this, which is that Rondo tried to dunk on LeBron several times in the regular season and got stuffed each time.  Bron was probably expecting the same thing here, but oops!  just got to futilely swipe at the ball in midair instead. 

Kinda reminds me of the old stories about how Russell would let Wilt get away with things in less important games so he could stop them when it counted.

that moment that lebron realizes he's on the wrong flight. I love it so much.