So if we are going to delve into who we have a CLEAR advantage over would it not then be prudent to see who Rondo has actually outplayed during the past couple of years in head to head competition?
Because say what you want when Rondo has gone up against the best, he has outplayed them in that one to one, head to head combat much more often than he has been outplayed
It's easy to look at paper and say, who does he have a CLEAR advantage over but how about you look at the actual performances against those players
Rondo beats them in those head to head meeting much more than he doesn't and SO, your CLEAR advantage opinion should probably be revised
Without question, Rondo gets up for games against top competition, so much that he was called out on it over the summer-that he needed to get up for every game. My take is that he saw those matchups as a chance to assert himself as a top PG. No question he showed he can hang with the best.
Looking at some recent randomly selected head-to-head box scores:
I'm not sure that Rondo's 17/1/8 with 2 turnovers on 7-15 shooting in 35 min. is a clear advantage over Mike Conley's 12/6/6 on 5/9 shooting, including 2/3 on 3's, in 29 minutes. Would we say Conley is better than Rondo? No, but the numbers suggest they played to a near standstill. Using overall stats, Rondo is clearly better than Conley, but in this head to head, they were pretty close, overall, by the numbers.
Another example: Rondo posted 15/4/7 with 4 TO's on 6/12 shooting in a touch under 37 minutes with one steal, while Randy Foye (a very different, but talented, player) went for 9/2/8 with 3 TO's on wretched 3/14 shooting (0/5 from 3) and 2 steals. An off-night shooting for Foye is the only thing that tilts this toward Rondo, as the other areas are pretty close.
Another: Rondo: 8/4/6 with 3 TO's on 4/8 shooting with 1 steal in 27.5 minutes; Raymond Felton: 4/5/6 on 1/6 shooting, zero TO's and steals. The numbers suggest this was a draw at PG as well.
Rondo: 15/5/11 with 4 TO's and 2 STL on healthy 7/12 shooting. Billups squeaked out 26/4/7 on 7/11 shooting, including 2/4 from 3, with 3 TO's and 1 BLK. For some reason, Rajon took 3 shots from 3 in this game, hitting none. I give the advantage to Billups on this one.
Against Devin Harris, Rondo had 17 assists when we got killed, posting 13/6/17 with 4TO's and 3STL's on 5/9 shooting. Harris put up 23/1/5 on 6/16 shooting (1/4 from 3, and a perfect 10/10 from the line), matching Rondo's 4 TO's and 3 STL. Rondo got mad assists in this losing effort, but the box score suggests Harris' ability to get to the line and score compensated for Rondo's assists. Since Rondo had more than half of the team's assists and we got killed, the numbers suggest his assisting didn't really help us all that much. Hard to read a game like this, so let's look at the earlier game:
On Feb 5th, Rondo put up a very solid 17/3/11 with only 2 TO's on 6/8 shooting, 3 STL, 1 BLK in a whopping 44 minutes. Harris posted 17/2/8 with 3 TO's on 6/15 shooting (0/5 from 3), with no steals or blocks in a more normal 35 minutes. This one looks like a draw. The early Jan game was more typical, with Rondo getting the assist advantage and Harris having the scoring advantage. Overall, I'd say Rondo/Harris is a Rondo advantage, but possibly because Harris doesn't have anyone to pass to, and is a primary scorer that gets more defensive attention. I'm not sure that talent-wise there is a huge advantage.
Just thought I'd look at a few non-marquee matchups, instead of just the big-name matchups. It appears that Rondo's advantage over "average" PG's like Conley, Felton, Foye, and Harris is slight, if any, based on a handful of recent games, at least. Since we're all bigger homers than Tommy, we rate him astronomically high, and since he's the franchise's only real talent for the future, the franchise does, too, because they HAVE to.
For kicks: against Dallas at home on 1/18, Rondo went 7/4/12 on 3/8 shooting w/2 TO's and 2 STLs in 37 minutes, which is great. J-Kidd went 13/4/17 on 5/7 shooting, including 3/3 from 3, with 3 TO's and a steal. Rondo was great, but Kidd was clearly better.
Just some food for thought. This take suggests that Billups and Kidd were clearly better head to head, and Felton, Harris, Foye, and Conley were not far from even matchups, by the numbers, in recent games. One could conclude that although Rondo is clearly a solid starting PG and a very good one, he's not the best player on a great team, but perhaps a guy that could be combined with other very good players to make a very, very good team that might have a shot, which is pretty much what the C's are right now.
