To me, our top priorities are the rebounding (on defense especially, like you said) and Rondo. He must stop being so passive and waiting for his teammates to get open. At least, when he does that, he should consider attacking the hoop when nobody gets free because he always makes the pass and this results in nothing.
I'm pretty sure what you characterize as 'passive' is all part of Doc's game plan to funnel the ball to the Big 3 at the expense of often under-utilizing Rondo's strengths.
Check out this quote from Rondo after Wednesday's game, describing what changed in the 2nd half:
We started calling plays for me in the pick-and-roll," Rondo said. "Sometimes when they switch, they'd show and get back. We tried to keep mixing it up with the play call and just get to the rim.
from
http://espn.go.com/boston/columns/celtics/blog/_/post/4669562/name/forsbergI admit, I sometimes have wondered if it was Rondo being 'passive' or Doc taking the ball out his hands. This quote pretty much seals it, IMO.
Doc, though he played point guard himself, wasn't actually a pure point--he was a combo guard with good handles and high IQ. To him, he doesn't see the necessity of having a pure point, so much so that his offense is designed to run with or without a real point guard. That's fine if you don't have a point. But if you do, if you have one of the purest and most talented in the league, it's a huge waste of resources.
See, Doc would rather give iso opportunities throughout the course of the game to Ray or Paul, or put KG in pick-and-roll opportunities with Ray/Paul, than he would simply feed Rondo a high screen and let him penetrate and kick or score himself. Wednesday's game was a classic example of this. In the first half, we ran our 'offense'--that is, Rondo initiated offense (or House, for that matter) and then spotted up in the corner while Ray/Paul and KG played their two-man game. In the 2nd half, we ran a high screen for Rondo about 80 percent of the time, resulting in about 12 points and 4 assists for Rajon, and a 31-19 advantage on the scoreboard.
It's pretty clear to me that Rondo is at his best with the ball in his hands--he's our best decision maker, best ball handler, quickest transition player and best penetrator. Yet, game after game, Rondo is reduced by our coach into a ball caddy for the Big 3.
It's not a question of attacking the rim, it's a question of whether Doc is calling for high picks. If he is, we'll see what we saw in the 2nd half on Wednesday. If not, we'll get what we got in the 1st half.
The thing is, not only are we 'wasting' what Rondo could bring us, we're also running Ray/Paul into the ground asking them to carry more of the burden than they have to. With Rondo on this team, they should be simply focused on scoring--yet our offense funnels them creation responsibilities while rendering our poor shooting pure point into a spot up shooter. Not only is it a mismanagement of resources on the starting unit, but Doc often compounds the problem further by using Ray/Paul as the 2nd unit bridge, further over-extending Ray/Paul while limiting the potential of our 2nd unit, since it is left without a real point guard.
Bottom line: putting the ball in Rondo's hands, giving him a high screen on pretty much every possession is good for EVERYBODY, both in terms of offensive efficiency and maximizing the minutes of the Big 3. And when we don't do that, it's not Rondo being passive, it's Rondo doing what Doc wants.
