You have to put it into context. MikeD felt that Rondo was already last year some kind of god of basketball. That he was ready to have the ball in his hands contolling the offense completely. He wasn't ready then... he was doing a terrible job earlier this season. For that to be true, something within Rondo had to change, and Rondo has begun to change throughout the season.
Rondo's skills were rarely the cause for concern, so that Rondo is playing good now in no way relates to what MikeD felt needed to be done back then when he was posting.
So what I mean is, that Rondo is playing very good now and controlling our offense in no way makes MikeD's opinion that Rondo should've had more control of our offense last season correct.
The only thing that he was proven right about was that Rondo was something special, but then again, I don't think many here had issues with that notion.
I haven't been around much this year either, but I have never felt like this place was in any way anti-Rondo. For a time during Mike D's "prime" in the middle of last year, there was a lot more criticism of Rondo - I know I weighed in with some - but it's like Bud said, we only reacted to MikeD going too far with his hero worship.
Rondo's shown he's now ready for some (but not all) of what MikeD talked about, much of which he wasn't ready for last year (as was proven on the court at various times). Like Bud said, most of us saw many of the same bright things Mike saw in Rondo's future, but we simply didn't want to give too much control too soon to a kid who may not have been ready when we had just brought in two veteran All Stars and Hall of Famers to help our perennial All Star and Hall of Famer. Last year, we couldn't depend on Rondo to the extent MikeD wanted. Even those of us who argued and disagreed with Mike, though, recognized (or at least hoped) that Rondo had the capability in his future.
Now, though Rondo is up to the task of running this offense and I don't know (admittedly, I'm not on here much anymore) of anybody disparaging Rondo's game or contributions on the site. We are better this year than we were last year (in my opinion) because despite a weaker bench and a sloppier defense (which, and this is something I pointed out after the Jazz game, appears to me to have gotten tighter over the break, though that remains to be seen over the long haul) because Rondo has emerged as a fourth star (John Hollinger wasn't the only person who thought Rondo deserved to be an All Star over Pierce and Allen) and Allen has adjusted to a new offense that does not put the ball in his hands until we're ready for him to shoot. (I think a lot of us underrated the difficulty of going from create-your-shot shooter to catch-and-shoot shooter; Allen only really started coming around to it in the Detroit and more obviously LA series.)
As for Rondo, we're just more dangerous with the ball in his hands, with part of the reason being that defenders will never lay off Pierce, Allen and Garnett when Rondo's handling while they will stray off Rondo to double Pierce when Pierce is handling. Rondo has also been a better playmaker and protector of the ball, so keeping it in his hands seems to me to have led to defenses staying more honest and better shot opportunities. Rondo has had ups and downs this year (Bud, I'm guessing you're talking about his bad run in late December/early January? I remember thinking he was more impressive than anybody else on the team for the first two months of the season, when we went up to 27-2) but in my eyes he's become one of the top 5 actual point guards - not just shoot-first guards who bring up the ball - in the NBA, behind Paul and probably Williams and up there with Billups, Nash and Parker (the last two of whom can't even touch Rondo on the defensive end).
You really think so? I know one or two posters that seem to have some vendetta against Rondo, but if I had to guess, I'd say he's one of the most popular players on the team.
Rondo is popular, but Posey is the most popular on here.
Hmm... I disagree with that. A lot of posters miss Posey, but an equal number (or nearly so) think Ainge made the right call.
Or, like me, both miss him and understand why Ainge let him go.
I agree with Roy on the second point - if Rondo left via free agency like Posey did, even Ainge couldn't spin that one to satisfy Celtics fans, both on and off this blog.
