KG is the better defender. The only thing Perk guards better are centers that pound the ball inside. In all other scenarios pretty much KG is better. He can guard effectively a multitude of positions, he can guard the post, the perimeter, etc.
As for Rondo "Second Team Defense" is crap to me. He really only got there because of the amount of steals he gets. This is where he's good at... doing full court presses and half court traps, playing the passing lane, and sneaking up behind big men on the post to strip the ball away from him. He also has good hands on him to reach in.
But sadly, the thing he fails at is the most important aspect of a defender, particularly a perimeter defender, particularly from the PG position, and that's keeping his man in front of him, stopping PG from getting to the paint... stopping penetration. He has been consistently subpar in this.
So when you say he's subpar at this, I assume that you mean that he's below average? That many, if not most of the other pgs in the league are better at it than he is? That I could turn on most any game when the season starts and see a pg who's better at keeping opposing pgs out of the lane than Rondo?
Does it matter what I mean? He's just not good at it regardless of what rationalization you can come up with. If many PGs in this era suck at it is of no consequence to me.
If you think that pgs in this era are all poor at keeping their man in front of them you might consoder that it's because of rule changes (like hand checking). Clearly it's had a big effect on play, and pgs from previous eras wouldn't be faring any better under current rules.
For example, would you being the best player of a team that sucks automatically make you a good basketball player just because you can claim to be the best in your team? Similarly here you can't say that Rondo is good at keeping PGs off the paint and stopping penetration just because there aren't a multitude of good defenders in that position.
By your example, though, I'd be the best player on the only team in the league. Context is important. I could say that Paul Pierce isn''t much of a scorer. When challenged, I could say that I meant in comparison to Kobe, Lebron, Melo and Wade.
Maybe I'm reffering to him being subpar compared to his other skills. Maybe I'm reffering to him being subpar when compared to other historically good defenders. At the end of the day does it matter if he's simply not good at doing it?
That's why I wanted clarification. You should be able to see why it matters. You kind of threw me off when you were saying why Rondo shouldn't have been 2nd team all-defense but you weren't comparing his defense to other pgs in the league.
Agree completly with your points that context does matters, but as much as comparisons are important to understand the skill level of a player, there also needs to be an intrinc value that holds true by itself. In this case, what we know of what makes a good PG defender and what his responsibilities are, one the main responsibilities is stopping penetration and keeping your player in front of you. Keeping a player in front of you is fundamental to all perimeter defenders.
As for the All NBA stuff, well there are a lot of exclusions that often ignore the really good defensive players of the league, mainly because of offensive ineptitude which limits their playing time and exposure.
This problem of Rondo was well illustrated during the playoffs, I really don't see any need to contest it.
And yep, you're right about me being able to clarify what I meant... I just don't think that in this instance there was any need to do so because I don't know how anyone can still think of Rondo as a good penetration stopper. And since I consider that one of the most basic and important defensive elements in the perimeter, I can't in good conscience say that Rondo is a really good defender as many are lead to believe.
What he does have going for him is that he does a lot of the other things well in the defensive end, like communication, recovery, playing the passing lanes, rebounding (something that is highly valued when voting for defensive players), sneaking in for steals. And overall, all these things add a ton of value to the defensive end, but his defensive penetration problems almost makes all these efforts neglectable. So at most, he's a useful defender that can cause enough chaos/problems to an opposing team, but he has his weaknesses that can and have been exploited, and certainly not a defensive stopper at the moment.
I'll say this though, which is where I think the main problem when evaluating Rondo comes from. His main problem in this is his defensive discipline rather than his skills, which is why it's the more frustrating. But since this has been a problem since he has entered the league and a problem that is quite frequent, I don't know how much benefit of the doubt we can give him. I wouldn't be surprised if next year he comes in and doesn't allow anyone to go through because I fully believe he has the ability to do so... but until then, he shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath when KG is concerend as a man defender or Perk or Pierce for that matter as of late.
