Is Rondo's Defense Overrated?

[twinbree]

Rondo played spectacularly. He was simply TIRED. He should have immediately been taken out, because at that point it was obvious that he was too tired to fight over the screens. Also, like other posters have said, in a pick and roll situation, the help defender has to step up and show better. Whoever the help defender was, he did not do that.Rondo is human. He can't do everything.

Yeah I'm beginning to think Rondo is playing too many minutes. I can't recall where I read that in the 1st round he had the largest drop off in FG% from 1st to 2nd half. He's still quite young and needs to get used to multitasking at a high level on both ends of the floor for 40+ minutes.

I think he does a great job disrupting the other team's offense by not letting the other PG run the offense or get their team-mates involved and forcing the PG into turnovers. Where his defense suffers is when his man decides to take him one on one or he loses track of his man or gets picked off. For me he's an above average defender especially at his size and certainly better than most of the starting PGs around but has room to improve.

[vinnie]

I honestly think that the team is so dependent on Rondo to control the pace of the game on the offensive end that sometimes he simply cannot play as hard on every play on the defensive end. I also believe that if the Celtics had a real backup point guard it would take some of the pressure off of Rondo and he could get a few more minutes rest each game for his battered body. After some of those fouls he took tonight, I could hardly believe he was standing at the end of the game.

[Spicoli]

Rondo played spectacularly. He was simply TIRED. He should have immediately been taken out, because at that point it was obvious that he was too tired to fight over the screens. Also, like other posters have said, in a pick and roll situation, the help defender has to step up and show better. Whoever the help defender was, he did not do that.Rondo is human. He can't do everything.

Yeah I'm beginning to think Rondo is playing too many minutes. I can't recall where I read that in the 1st round he had the largest drop off in FG% from 1st to 2nd half. He's still quite young and needs to get used to multitasking at a high level on both ends of the floor for 40+ minutes.

I think he does a great job disrupting the other team's offense by not letting the other PG run the offense or get their team-mates involved and forcing the PG into turnovers. Where his defense suffers is when his man decides to take him one on one or he loses track of his man or gets picked off. For me he's an above average defender especially at his size and certainly better than most of the starting PGs around but has room to improve.

I definitely think he has room to improve on the defensive end, but i sympathize with Rondo because even as a recreational basketball player, i know how hard it is to play hard on both ends for an entire game. If i'm going all out on the offensive end, i can typically do "okay" on the defensive end, but there's never a time when i can effectively do both, because it's just too physically draining. Obviously i'm not a professional athlete and do not have the conditioning that they do, but human beings can only be physically pushed to the limit to a certain point. What Rondo did on the offensive end today is what we needed. His teammates have to be aware of how physically demanding it is for him to push the pace for an entire game, and give him some help on the other end.

[GreenFaith1819]

Well, I don't think it's overrated, but he has to mature defensively. He isn't there, yet.

But he is soon to be great..he's only 23? Once he hits his prime defensively he will be as good as Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Potentially Better than both, I'd say.

He has been really, really good for us so far this season. He'll get even better.

[guava_wrench]

Every great defensive player has been burned many times.