Rondo's playing 37 minutes a night, and it's only the regular season. Honestly, I don't think he can keep it up, and he's gonna have to play 40+ in the playoffs. We need a REAL backup PG who can score and distribute, for 15 minutes a night. Throw me some dimes, who should we get?
Well, I disagree that he can't keep it up. The kid's young and in phenomenal shape. Lots of older players have played more minutes than that and held up.
Still, I wouldn't mind some insurance. Augustin wouldn't be bad, especially since Williams could likely take Davis's minutes without a big drop off.
Let's also keep in mind that Daniels hasn't really run any backup PG here. At the beginning of the season, he got hurt just as Doc was starting to phase him in. And now Doc has yet to pick up the experiment again. If we don't make a deal, I think the C's should definitely make an effort to have Daniels ready to run the team by the playoffs when Rondo is out.
Amen and amen.
The more I've seen of Daniels with this team, the more I think he should be given PG duties. Two reasons:
1. Eddie has struggled so mightily this year that I believe he should be taken out of the rotation altogether. Last year and the year before we could get away with Eddie at the 1 or as a small 2 because he was shooting 44% from 3, hitting the boards and Ray Allen/Paul Pierce were much more effective at creating looks with the 2nd team. This year he's adding so little that it's not worth taking the defensive beating and sacrificing a crucial ball-handling/passing position.
2. Marquis doesn't make that much of an impact as a wing on this team and I don't think he would even if Augustin was on the team. He plays very solid, low-risk defense (and drives Vince Carter crazy for whatever reason), but he doesn't spread the floor, he's not a great slasher against solid wing defenders, he's not a great rebounder on either end and he's only a post-up threat when he's matched up with a much smaller player. In the first part of the season, he ended up playing quiet as mouse as a wing, averaging career lows in per minute shot attempts and usage.
Put him at the 1 and he's got a mismatch in the post on every possession, his drive becomes much more dangerous because he can pull-up from 10-feet with a major height advantage, and he becomes a plus rebounder at his position. Perhaps this is why Daniels made such a splash as a rookie in Dallas: he primarily played PG.
If we could just add one more defensively competent shooting wing to the team (don't say Scal!) I think Marquis is our best answer to the back-up PG problem.