So Shaq (and Wilt), because of their free throw shooting and players like Kidd (and, for most of his career, Magic), because of their outside shooting, didn't make you cut for elite players? I might disagree.
Look at Gasol and Howard. Most view Pau as the superior big in the league now. Largely because Howard does not have a consistent and dependable offensive game.
Paul's a great player, maybe better than Rondo, but how many players in the league can dominate a game when they only score 5-6 points? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter that they don't have great outside shots, or that they only scored 5-6 points. What matters is that they dominated the game.
Shaq's inside dominance in his prime had a far greater impact then Rondo passing to 4 future HOF'ers. You kind of helped me prove my point on the difference between an elite go to palyer and Rondo. Rondo can't shoot outside or at the charity stripe. While Shaq couldn't shoot FT's he was a beast in the paint.
No, you didn't need any help proving your point. By the way, you somehow "forgot" to copy it with the other parts of the post. Here it is, though:
"I view an elite player as somebody who can do everything well and some things exceptionally well. But they don't have glaring weaknesses."
That Shaq's kind of an enigma, isn't he? He clearly can't be an elite player because he had a glaring weakness, yet he was still, well, an elite player.
I think your point needs a bit of refining.
When PP puts in 29 points or RA puts in 35, I don't consider the high assist man the dominate player on the floor that night.
No, you probably wouldn't. Ray's 35 points came on 13 made baskets. Rondo assisted 9 of those. Ray had a great night, hitting 7 three pointers. Rondo assisted on 6 of those. You just can't see beyond who scores. And you had 2 chances to see it. In the first game vs the Heat, Ray hit 5 threes, four off of assists from Rondo. But it's not just the assists, or the great defense he's playing. It's the way he's controlling the offense and dictating the pace of the game night in and night out.
Put Rondo on a bad team right now and he wouldn't even be mentioned as an all star candidate.
Yes, you've got me there. If you put Rondo on a mythical team with no players that can hit an open shot and has nobody athletic enough to run the break he might have trouble making the all-star team. Of course, once they signed some nba players to their roster the situation might change.
Say what you will about Rondo, but he's done some pretty significant things in the playoffs for someone with such glaring weaknesses. His game 4 vs Cleveland (29/18/13) was (from what I heard on tv at the time) the only game in the history of the league where a player's led the rest of his team by more than 10 points, 10 boards and 10 assists. In the 08-09 playoffs he averaged 17/9.8/9.7. There are only 4-5 other players who have ever put up numbers like that in the playoffs. And there are only about 5 players in the history of the league with more career playoff triple doubles than he's put up in the last 2 years.
