Author Topic: Rondo needs to play better D in a hurry  (Read 9389 times)

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Re: Rondo needs to play better D in a hurry
« Reply #45 on: November 20, 2009, 06:07:50 PM »

Offline EJPLAYA

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What a complete twisting of information BBALL TIM! Most importantly Ray and PP HAVE done a much better job keeping their men in front of them. Not even debatable! AND they are 10+ years older than Rondo. Would you use those same misleading stats against Perk. HIS opponents shoot an even higher rate of inside shots vs. Rondo's guys. Considering his man is the point guard who usually doesn't even enter the paint that is a ridiculously high %.

You can't make Rondo's defense out to be anything other than lazy. Be serious. He just doesn't care about anything but the occasional steal and offense.

  Sorry, but I disagree. The thing is, it's a little hard to show. But try this if you can. Go to 82games.com. Click on "prior seasons" to get to the 2008-2009 season (since it's a full season and not a small sample size). Start randomly clicking on teams. When you click on a team, on the left they have "Team Stats". At the bottom of that column they have "production by Position". Click on that.

  They have a table called "Opponent Production by Position" which has % of inside shots for pg, sg, sf, pf and c. Look at enough teams to convince yourself that the number of inside shots for pgs is at least as high as it is for sg and sf if not a little higher. What does that tell you? For the average team, point guards take as many inside shots as wing players. Rondo gives up fewer inside shots than Paul or Ray even though the average pg takes as many or more than the average wing. This means that Rondo is BETTER than they are (so far this year) at keeping his man in front of him.

  Based on the dozen or so teams that I checked the average pg takes about 27-28% of his shots from the inside, which is what Rondo allowed last year. Right now he's allowing 18%, which is like a 35% improvement. You can say I'm twisting stats. But I don't think I am. According to 82games when Paul plays opposing SFs take 3.6 inside shots in 48 minutes. When Ray plays it's 3.3 per 48 for opposing SGs. When Rondo plays it's 2.6 inside shots per 48 minutes for opposing PGs.
 


You can't compare Rondo to PP and Ray though because they play at different positions. Their guys are going to naturally take more shots inside than a PG. As far as Rondo's % I would argue that this can be much more attributed to the fact that he has Perk and KG back there waiting for his man which deters some of these shots. Rather than playing the meaningless and most of the time misleading stat game lets be honest about what you are seeing out of your own eyes and that is Rondo letting his man blow past him and trying to poke it out from behind. That's not even debatable! He chooses to play this defense and what it causes is for the bigs to have to rotate to his guy. They either dish it off to Perk or KG's now wide open man for an easy bucket, kick it out to a three point shooter for a wide open look, or throw up a tough shot over Perk or KG and their man cleans up the boards.

We are having a tough time because teams are shooting wide open 3's, and getting easy put backs  when our bigs rotate. I blame much of this on Rondo's lack of effort keeping in front of his man, rotating to the open shooter, or trying to fight through picks. Watch it closely for a few games and then go back to your stats.

TP to you for the nice dialogue though! Love trading ideas with you BBALL TIM. Even when you are wrong.  ;D

  I know they play different positions. That's why I was comparing Rondo to PGs, Ray to SGs, and Paul to SFs. Again, if you look at the numbers you'll see that it's not true that wings naturally take more inside shots that point guards. Also, why would Perk and KG deter point guards from shots and not shooting guards or small forwards?

  But, really, you're right, the whole Ray and Paul vs Rondo is red herring because they play different positions. I should be able to see it with point guards though right? I should be able to watch the opposing point guard keep Rondo in front of him and then blow past Rondo on the other end. I should also be able to turn on random nba games and see point guards that do a better job of keeping the other pg out fo the lane than Rondo does, right?

  By the way, when I'm watching Rondo play, what should I be looking for from the other players when there's a pick on Rondo? Should someone switch onto the pg after the pick? Should the player guarding the guy who sets the pick try and slow down the penetration? Or should they do nothing and expect Rondo to fight through or go around the pick and get back in front of his man during the time it takes the other pg to take 2-3 steps and get into the lane?

  When I hear "fight through the pick" I think more of someone chasing Ray Allen or Reggie Miller around the perimeter or across the baseline. It's not always in terms of getting back in front of a pg when he cuts around the pick and heads straight to the basket. Or, is that something I'll see all the other pgs doing as well?

It's not about the other point guards. It is about Rondo and him thinking he is one of the premier pg's in the league. The reason that he blows by OTHER pg's is because he is one of the very quickest pg's in the league. That is why it is especially frustrating to watch the guy get blown past by other pg's. He has the physical tools to stay in front of his man, however chooses not to. Just because there are other lazy pg's in the league, and lots of much slower ones who CAN'T stay in front of Rondo, doesn't excuse his lack of effort.

As far as fighting through picks what I'd like to see is him go under or over the pick instead of  stopping a foot or two before it and giving up, then instead of at least picking up the other players man sit and watch his guy dribble all the way down the lane leaving that guy wide open for a kickout three. He makes no effort to guard anyone when he is picked. That's a good thing for you to watch.

Speaking of picks though, he also is to blame (as is PP) for most of Perk's offensive fouls from moving picks due to the fact that this supposed all star nba pg isn't smart enough to realize that you don't take off until AFTER the pick has been set and his man is in position rather than BEFORE he gets set. Point really is that he sure has a lot of flaws for a guy who just got locked up for 55 million, especially when those flaws are mostly about effort.

Re: Rondo needs to play better D in a hurry
« Reply #46 on: November 20, 2009, 07:23:14 PM »

Offline Greenbean

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Disclaimer: I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread.

I just want to point out that the majority of PG's in this league are not great on ball defenders. The reason? They are playing the quickest most agile players on the floor every night. 80% of PGs in this league have the ability to make ANY player look downright ridiculous with speed and or handles. Rondo does an admirable job of staying in front of his guy but it really is a team defense that must be responsible for limiting a PG's penetration.

A good analogy is cornerbacks in the NFL. The elite guys are fast and physical. Even the best are at a disadvantage. They are moving backwards while the reciever is moving forward with an exact route in mind...just like the offense/defense dynamic in the NBA. Skilled offense always has the advantage over any defense.

Re: Rondo needs to play better D in a hurry
« Reply #47 on: November 20, 2009, 11:22:43 PM »

Offline HomeRunBaker

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Disclaimer: I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread.

I just want to point out that the majority of PG's in this league are not great on ball defenders. The reason? They are playing the quickest most agile players on the floor every night. 80% of PGs in this league have the ability to make ANY player look downright ridiculous with speed and or handles. Rondo does an admirable job of staying in front of his guy but it really is a team defense that must be responsible for limiting a PG's penetration.

A good analogy is cornerbacks in the NFL. The elite guys are fast and physical. Even the best are at a disadvantage. They are moving backwards while the reciever is moving forward with an exact route in mind...just like the offense/defense dynamic in the NBA. Skilled offense always has the advantage over any defense.

The difference with Rondo is that he does have the physical ability to play much better on-the-ball defense but has had a history of mental lapses in the past.  Since he signed his contract he has been simply awful and the effort has not been there......hence Eddie House closing 2 games for him the past two weeks.


Quote
Sorry, but I disagree. The thing is, it's a little hard to show. But try this if you can. Go to 82games.com. Click on "prior seasons" to get to the 2008-2009 season (since it's a full season and not a small sample size). Start randomly clicking on teams. When you click on a team, on the left they have "Team Stats". At the bottom of that column they have "production by Position". Click on that.

  They have a table called "Opponent Production by Position" which has % of inside shots for pg, sg, sf, pf and c. Look at enough teams to convince yourself that the number of inside shots for pgs is at least as high as it is for sg and sf if not a little higher. What does that tell you? For the average team, point guards take as many inside shots as wing players. Rondo gives up fewer inside shots than Paul or Ray even though the average pg takes as many or more than the average wing. This means that Rondo is BETTER than they are (so far this year) at keeping his man in front of him.

  Based on the dozen or so teams that I checked the average pg takes about 27-28% of his shots from the inside, which is what Rondo allowed last year. Right now he's allowing 18%, which is like a 35% improvement. You can say I'm twisting stats. But I don't think I am. According to 82games when Paul plays opposing SFs take 3.6 inside shots in 48 minutes. When Ray plays it's 3.3 per 48 for opposing SGs. When Rondo plays it's 2.6 inside shots per 48 minutes for opposing PGs.

Holy geez. Please stop for a second and recognize that opposing PG's are not ATTEMPTING to penetrate into the paint only to face Garnett and Perkins waiting for them last season.

Using stats such as this would lead one to believe that Rondo isn't capable of penetrating and drawing fouls since he has attempted just 16 FT's in 12 games while avg. only 2.6 FGA for his career.  Clearly there are other factors at play such as his role on this team.