I have watched every single game this season and what I personally am seeing from Rondo is a different approach to the game as a whole and in many different facets of his game. In the beginning of the year it seemed like Rondo was feeding off of getting an assist and seeing how many he could get. He was getting 15 a night!! He CONSTANTLY pushed tempo, no matter who we played and he seemed like he always looked for our shooters trailing on the break to get them open threes. He wasn't SETTLING for jumpers. He was constantly moving on offense and slashing into the lane to force teams to sag in and make it that much easier for Paul, Ray, and Kevin to get good looks.
Now I see a Rondo who is walking the ball up the court, and DRIBBLING for at least a good 10 seconds off the shot clock. Has anyone else noticed how many late jumpers we've had to throw up lately because our guys are forced to go 1 on 1 to put up a buzzer beater to avoid a shot clock violation?? On the break, if there ever is one anymore, he takes it straight to the basket and puts up a horrible lay-up instead of looking behind him anymore to hit Ray for a wide open three. I haven't seen him REALLY look for Ray since Ray broke the record which concerns me a lot. He's not penetrating the D at all he's just standing out there waiting for someone to get open and if they don't he goes solo. It seems like 75% of the time its a high pick and roll with him and KG or Baby and it's either an AWFUL Rondo jumper or a mid range KG or Baby jumper, which is fine if they are making them but if they aren't it means long scoring draughts for our team which absolutely kill us and did against the Lakers in Game 7. Everyone talks about the rebounding last year against the Lakers but we couldn't SCORE in the fourth quarter against them and it was because of these droughts this team had. No one talked about how Rondo rose to a different level last year against the Magic and Cavs and then reverted back to his old ways against the Lakers.
Rondo is the Motor that drives this engine and if he isn't playing right, which he isn't right now, then we will fall like we did last year but this time sooner against a team like the Bulls if he doesn't wake up!! There IS something going on here whether it be emotional about PERK being gone or physical with a knee or ankle injury. I just hope we/he figures this out because if he doesn't we're in big trouble. Delonte would be great if he could ever stay healthy to give Rondo a blow but mark my words we CANNOT and WILL NOT win a championship because Delonte is our starting PG. It starts and ends with Rondo. We can only pray he figures this out. He's a Celtic though and I love him and always will as long as he's wearing green.
Celtic fan since I came outta the womb, swear I have Green blood.
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Topic: Should Delonte start for Rondo? (Read 17541 times)