Im glad we all finally agree that Rondo is not our best player and never has been.
Im getting sick of his inconsistency, lack of effort and careless playstyle. Great players show up EVERY game.
Its clear that Rondo isnt "having a bad game". He just simply isnt trying.
Who makes between the leg behind the back passes on a clear easy fast break? The guy tries too hard and is too cocky.
First of all, saying great players show up EVERY game generally means one of three things: there are no great players because nobody shows up EVERY game, you don't see them play often enough to know whether they show up or not, or you can't tell if they show up or not when you watch them. Secondly, one of the reasons Rondo's seen in such a bad light on this board is because people always try and assign ridiculous motives to everything he does.
He's bored, he's disinterested, he misses Perk, he passes the ball because he's selfish and he's trying to pad his stats, he's afraid to shoot, he's afraid to drive, he's afraid to take foul shots, he lets people get past him on purpose so he can poke the ball away. He's a lazy gambler on defense, looking to pad his steals stats. It doesn't matter if he's one of the best defensive pgs in the game, he should be one of the best ever. That's off the top of my head.
Watch KG/PP/RA play and post a similar reason for every bad game or bad play they have, every time they don't run back or pass up an open shot. People will think you're crazy. Write it about Rondo and you're one of the crowd.
That's not true at all. Have you forgotten all the Pierce is lazy threads? All the trade Ray threads? All the KG is done threads? Just the other day many were complaining about KG and how he was playing in that game against the Bucks, thankfully he did better as the game went on.
I think there's a difference between saying that you think that KG and Ray are succumbing to age and to saying that Rondo passes the ball out of selfishness.
Remove all the "explanations", and you'll still find yourself with Rondo being beat off the dribble, reluctant to penetrate, missing foul shots, over-passing, going for steals instead of keeping with his man, not taking shots when he should be, etc. depending on the game.
On one hand that's true, but on the other hand people might have a more realistic perspective when they make the complaints (or, then again, maybe not...). People might actually realize that all point guards get beat off the dribble, and most do more often than Rondo. Maybe they could realize that Rondo takes close to the average amount of 20 footers for a pg. Maybe they'd see that while Rondo overpasses at times the same is true for RR/PP/KG. Or, again, maybe not.
It's fine if you don't think this isn't much of an issue for him, but the flaws will still be there.
I've never said he doesn't have flaws. I don't disagree that he's a poor foul shooter or that he would be better if he could hit more outside shots. I don't disagree that at times his play hurts our offense. I just think that sometimes the way the other people play also hurt our offense, and that Rondo is a very good player in spite of those flaws, as opposed to being a good player *aside* from those flaws.
At least from my standpoint, to me Rondo gets a vast of the criticism (and the praise) just because of the role he has on this team. So when he does or doesn't do something it has an exponential impact.
As for defense it's just a very tricky situation because it's hard to find the combination of an offensive floor general who is also a capable defender. Most great PG defenders are eating the bench because of offensive deficiencies. So the, who would you rather have question is not easily answerable unless you go looking into the elite PGs in the league. Which is what makes Rondo a unique talent to have.
What's frustrating about the situation is that Rondo's problems defensively, whatever they may be, are more of a discipline nature rather than a skill/talent standpoint.
For example, Eddie House wasn't a good defender by great stretch of the imagination. But he did a better job at staying in front of his defender, though often his limitations led to him just being mismatched. But Rondo has the tools so I would like to see a bit more consistency on that regard. He's still a very good defender, it's just that what he doesn't do particularly well is quite costly at times.
But enough of that. I'm confident that he'll elevate his game during the playoffs, which will be awesome.
