The Rondo Mystery

[Atzar]

I'm going to take this opportunity to get a couple of Rondo-related rants off my chest.

It's funny, though, that move.  The move that he tried to pull against Derrick Rose at the end of Game 6 would have worked against any other point guard in the league.  Rose is the ONLY one that has both the length and the athleticism to stop that shot.  Against any other team, that play would have been between Rondo and the rim - or he would have been at the line, shooting for the tie and then the win.  Of course, it was against Chicago, so that's no consolation, but I'm just saying.

Anyway, I'm going to echo what a lot of other people have already said in here:  Rondo, to this day, has been known as an inconsistent player.  He'll have a week where he's unguardable and he destroys every matchup he faces and then... something happens.  He'll be off for the next week.  The jumpshot that is just starting to become effective for him stops going down, and the TJ Fords of the league outplay him.  He stops attacking the basket, preferring instead to pass to his teammates and get out of the way.  Or when he's forced to make a move, it ends in one of these teardrop floaters instead of a layup attempt.

Now, I've been trying to figure out what happened in the third quarter last night.  The switch may have flipped again, but I couldn't tell if he was being aggressive again or if he was just playing out-of-control.  I loved seeing Rondo try to dunk on Dwight Howard, even though everybody watching knew he really didn't have a chance.  

We'll see tomorrow.

[2short]

Since I posted maybe the closest to a knock on rondo I've ever done I must come back with something else I noticed last night (to his defense)
On a closeup shot of him when he was all over the place and doing well...
rondo wasn't sweating
Might have the flu

Anyways I'll expect he & ray to come back much better.  What we need is our whole team to play well for a series.  PP didn't play great last series etc etc

[illantari]

Since I posted maybe the closest to a knock on rondo I've ever done I must come back with something else I noticed last night (to his defense)
On a closeup shot of him when he was all over the place and doing well...
rondo wasn't sweating
Might have the flu

Noooooooo Rondo has swine flu!   

J/k.... I hope.   

[Atzar]

Since I posted maybe the closest to a knock on rondo I've ever done I must come back with something else I noticed last night (to his defense)
On a closeup shot of him when he was all over the place and doing well...
rondo wasn't sweating
Might have the flu

Anyways I'll expect he & ray to come back much better.  What we need is our whole team to play well for a series.  PP didn't play great last series etc etc

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but when I talked to my dad after Game 7, one of the things he mentioned was how Rondo doesn't sweat.

It's possible that Rondo is sick.  If that's the case, I hope he kicks it.

[silverb]

Lets face it, Rondo has gone back down to earth after a great first round. Maybe he's tired, ill, or just hitting a wall. One thing is for sure, if he's ever going to be an elite PG, which I think he will be, he has to develop his shot.

He has very limited range and I think we need a PG thats going to hit the big shot when nobody else can. That was surely missing in Game 1 against the Magic.

[MaineBleedsGreen]

I'm no Rondo hater, and I give him alot of credit for the series versus the Bulls, but his decision making has been pretty suspect the last 3 games, and yes that includes 19ast to 0 TO's in game 6 of the Bulls series. I forget where I heard/read this but someone said "after 3 OT's the stats stop to matter." and I agree.

Really, at he end of the day, all I care about are wins. If the celtics win, I'm willing to over-look alot, when they lose I find myself being extra-critical of the players and the coaching staff. 

I don't think Rondo lost the game for us last night, and I don't think he "single handedly got us back into it in the 3rd" as some have suggested. It's a game played between two teams, with a plethora of factors. The Celtics comeback in the third seemed to be a combination of extra effort, moving the feet and having active hands on rebound, and taking advantage of the fact that Orlando was still settling for jump shots even when they weren't falling, which led to a ton of long rebounds, and opened things up for the Celtics.

Overall, I suspect Rondo will come back out with much better effort in game 2, and he better, because if he plays like he did last night on wens it's going to be tough for us to win.

[cdif911]

I've been holding onto this one, as I think it will get pretty heavily criticized, but the last few games, I see a kid who may be struggling with some sort of drug/alcohol abuse problem.  I've been around athletes like that and some days they're on and others they're as far from earth as they can get.  This is of course 1 million percent speculative, but it could be a scary possibility.

[pengaloo]

I've been holding onto this one, as I think it will get pretty heavily criticized, but the last few games, I see a kid who may be struggling with some sort of drug/alcohol abuse problem.  I've been around athletes like that and some days they're on and others they're as far from earth as they can get.  This is of course 1 million percent speculative, but it could be a scary possibility.

I've heard Mike & Tommy say that he is a "good kid". He also looks like he has a very nice family, so it's hard for me to think that Rajon has that kind of a problem.

[cdif911]

I've been holding onto this one, as I think it will get pretty heavily criticized, but the last few games, I see a kid who may be struggling with some sort of drug/alcohol abuse problem.  I've been around athletes like that and some days they're on and others they're as far from earth as they can get.  This is of course 1 million percent speculative, but it could be a scary possibility.

I've heard Mike & Tommy say that he is a "good kid". He also looks like he has a very nice family, so it's hard for me to think that Rajon has that kind of a problem.

anyone can have that kind of problem though, some people its really obvious, others hide it - its sad when someone comes from a good family and seems like a good person but has those demons (again talking societally not Rondo)

[CoachBo]

Personally, I think you want to be careful not to overanalyze the facts here.

Rondo's always been wildly inconsistent. He's still wildly inconsistent. In the rush to declare him a star, I think some of us - me included - have put wishful thinking above fact.

He's not a great NBA point guard. Yet. He's got to display better judgment with the basketball and better effort across the board before he gets there. And he's got to understand that on the nights when he takes time off - three quarters being pretty extreme last night - the club suffers.

[TheReaLPuba]

Rondo is a great player, not just a great PG.

I think we are placing too much blame on a guy who we shouldn't be expecting a triple double out of every game.

Rondo does need to score for us to be successful but he can not settle for jumpers when he hasn't even attacked the rim.

Rondo hasn't been Rondo for a few games now....maybe it's an ailment or whatever but for the C's to be successful they need Rondo to be dominant at the DEFENSIVE end.

[kheeko]

I've been holding onto this one, as I think it will get pretty heavily criticized, but the last few games, I see a kid who may be struggling with some sort of drug/alcohol abuse problem.  I've been around athletes like that and some days they're on and others they're as far from earth as they can get.  This is of course 1 million percent speculative, but it could be a scary possibility.

LOLL u people crack me up sometimes

[Bossco]

I read a quote on another thread here that inspired me to do some research. The quote was "The players should be judged by their production, not by how pretty they look". So here is a look at some of the other NBA point guard playoff stats. I tried to compare each player's 3 worst performances in this year's playoffs to Rondo's last 3 games. These are all per game averages. Here goes:

    
Rondo mpg 45, fg% 22, reb 8, ast 12.6, st 2, to 3.6, pts 9.6
Paul  mpg 40, fg% 35, reb 4, ast 9.6, st 1.6, to 4.6, pts 10
Billups m 39, fg% 30, reb 5, ast 7.6, st 1.6, to 3, pts 11.6
Kidd mpg 36, fg% 30, reb 6.3, ast 5.3, st 2.3, to .66, pts 6.3
Rose  mpg 37, fg% 39, reb 5.6, ast 5, st 1, to 5, points 11
MoWill m 36, fg% 37, reb 2.6, ast 6, st .33, to 2.3, pts 11.6
Alston mpg 35, fg% 35, reb 2, ast 5.3, st 1, to 2, pts 12.3
Parker mpg 36, fg% 43, reb 4, ast 7.6, st 0, to 5, pts 21
Fisher mpg 33, fg% 36, reb 2.6, ast 3.3, st 1, to 2.3, pts 8.6
DWill  mpg 41, fg% 33, reb 3.3, ast 10.6, st 1, to 3.6, pts 14.3
Bibby  mpg 36, fg% 39, reb 3, ast 6, st 1.3, to 2, points 11.3
Miller mpg 43, fg% 40, reb 5, ast 5.6, st 1.6, to 2.6, pts 16.3  

[fairweatherfan]

I've been holding onto this one, as I think it will get pretty heavily criticized, but the last few games, I see a kid who may be struggling with some sort of drug/alcohol abuse problem.  I've been around athletes like that and some days they're on and others they're as far from earth as they can get.  This is of course 1 million percent speculative, but it could be a scary possibility.

He's addicted to Rondohol! 

I think Bo and others are right - Rajon's always been inconsistent, and you measure the peaks and valleys in weeks, not games.  Over the last 3 years his peaks are higher and more frequent, and his dips are rarer and shallower (like 19 ast 0 to in a pretty bad game).  Learning how to play at a consistently high level is a big part of his learning process. 

I haven't seen anything to indicate this bad stretch is somehow unique or different, it's just frustrating cause it's the playoffs and we've just seen how scary good he could be someday.

[Bossco]

To follow up:

Out of the 12 NBA point guards that I listed. This is how Rondo ranks for stats coming from his last 3 games and the other's worst 3 games of this year's playoffs.

Rondo
mpg 1st
fg% 12th (last)
reb 1st
ast 1st
st  2nd
to tied for 8th
pts 10th

Just thought it would be nice to see a direct comparison with other point guards.