Trick or Treat Rondo

[PosImpos]

By now we are all quite familiar with the maddening inconsistency of Rajon Rondo.  It is difficult, as a Celtics fan, not to be rabidly in love with him (as a player, of course) for the magical things he does when he is at the peak of his game.  It is equally difficult, however, not to become sick with disgust and frustration when he comes out and lays a steaming rotten goose egg -- especially so since we're all familiar with the wonders he sometimes wields.  

As Rondo goes, so go the Celtics.  We have heard that over and over.  It is important to recognize that this is as much an indictment of this team as it is a piece of praise: Rondo is both the Celtics' only hope for a title this year and beyond, and its greatest obstacle to overcome in getting there.  Rajon Rondo is indeed the Celtics' best player, and any team that seeks to contend for a title is measured by the stature of its best player.  Unfortunately for the Celtics, though Rondo always stands at 6 feet and change, there are days when Rondo is a towering colossus and others when he is hardly taller than a toy soldier.  

Celtics fans cannot be blamed for going through cycles of love and hate with Rondo; we can neither fully commit to him nor completely shun him, for we know all too well that as well as he plays one day, he can always come out the very next day and look like a lost rookie, and visa versa.

I can't help but question the wisdom of consigning ourselves to this perpetual cycle for the foreseeable future, though.  Whether the Celtics win #18 this year or not, the fact is our team is at the mercy of Rondo's mercurial nature -- as a basketball player and as a person, both of which affect his production on the court and the team around him.  What other team in history has successfully relied so heavily on a player who can so easily flit between utter dominance and utter mediocrity, who can look like a top 10, top 5, even an MVP caliber player for a stretch of games and then turn into a pumpkin when the clock strikes midnight, so to speak, a day or two later?

[GreenFaith1819]

Well, I can't harp on Rondo too much from last night. I saw about 65% of the game and from what I saw Rondo was giving max effort.

That's all I can ask. I've already forgiven the Officiating, but even with that it's hard to deny that they had an unusual outcome on this game.

Officials are suppose to be invisible....present and alert - but invisible.

As for Boston's future with Rondo? My criteria for wanting to keep him here was/is based on his improvement with his outside shot. To that matter - I see improvement in the last several weeks. He is in fact starting to do that.

Rondo in fact brought his A games the entire NY series - he may not have averaged a triple-double, but he came close to that - and he took over 2 games: Game 2 and Game 3.

My mind is made up: I want Rajon Rondo in Boston Green for the future.

[scaryjerry]

rondo was fine yesterday, several other key guys were awful...Rondo did get in early foul trouble, but did his job defensively and pushing the pace.. he really hasnt been inconsistent in the playoffs

[OsirusCeltics]

Another "Blame Rondo" post...

[2short]

Well, I can't harp on Rondo too much from last night. I saw about 65% of the game and from what I saw Rondo was giving max effort.

That's all I can ask. I've already forgiven the Officiating, but even with that it's hard to deny that they had an unusual outcome on this game.

Officials are suppose to be invisible....present and alert - but invisible.

As for Boston's future with Rondo? My criteria for wanting to keep him here was/is based on his improvement with his outside shot. To that matter - I see improvement in the last several weeks. He is in fact starting to do that.

Rondo in fact brought his A games the entire NY series - he may not have averaged a triple-double, but he came close to that - and he took over 2 games: Game 2 and Game 3.

My mind is made up: I want Rajon Rondo in Boston Green for the future.

all agrees greenfaith!

[greenpride32]

I think MIA played him to perfection.  They backed off Rondo giving him the open jumper.  But rather than taking it, Rondo just tried to force the issue on Bibby.  That's what all BOS fans wanted as this was supposedly the biggest mismatch in our favor.  MIA just clogged the paint and Rondo really had nowhere to go.  You can't dribble around somebody who is constanting backing up on you.

What I'm really disappointed about is the fact that BOS didn't try something different after this strategy was clearly not working, and really waited until the second half to adjust.  Not Rondo's fault if the coaching staff said keeping driving on Bibby.

Also what people need to realize is most of Rondo's assists are very ordinary (not a knock on Rondo just true of any PG).  Look at all the in and out shots we had in the first quarter.  If a few more of those fall all of a sudden Rondo's assists numbers get padded/boosted.  In those games where Pierce and Allen are shooting 60-70% from the field it's impossible for Rondo to NOT get 12+ dimes.  But when they're shooting 20-30% it becomes very challenging.

[Assassin70]

Rondo and the C's will bounce back only PP and Ray showed up yesterday.

Can't blame Rondo for this Heat punked us yesterday! While it is not the refs fault we lost our play was.  But it is my opinion the refs seemed to kill our momentum when we started to show up.

But thats what you get when you play so bad down the stretch of the regular season that mattered most.  Heat wanted home court advantage and they definitely had it.

Now lets show them our brand of bball next game and take this series back!!!

[Chris]

I blame Rondo for one thing...making two dumb fouls early in the first quarter.  As soon as he did that, the C's were in trouble.  It completely ruined any chance at the team getting a rhythm going in the first half.  He needs to be much more careful going forward, and even if means letting Lebron throw one down on a fast break, staying on the floor is much more important than those 2 points.

[Donoghus]

"Trick or Treat" is and will always be one man;  Tony Allen.

[BballTim]

Also what people need to realize is most of Rondo's assists are very ordinary (not a knock on Rondo just true of any PG).  Look at all the in and out shots we had in the first quarter.  If a few more of those fall all of a sudden Rondo's assists numbers get padded/boosted.  In those games where Pierce and Allen are shooting 60-70% from the field it's impossible for Rondo to NOT get 12+ dimes.  But when they're shooting 20-30% it becomes very challenging.

  I think what people really don't realize is that, while Rondo does get a lot of ordinary assists (like any pg), a lot of his assists are good passes that seem simple because we see Rondo play on a regular basis. When I watch the Celts on defense I see opposing pgs miss open players that Rondo wouldn't, or send passes that are too high/low or are mis-timed or too late much more often than Rondo.

  If your claim was true then PP and RA would shoot just as well with Rondo in the game as out (which they don't), and the team would get at least close to the number of assists with Rondo out that they get when he plays. Our fg% drops by about 10% with Rondo out of the game, our 3pfg% by about 27%, our assists drop by about 31% and our assist/turnover ratio drops by 41%. If there's something most people don't realize it's how important Rondo's vision, passing and understanding of the game mean to the team (and those great shooters).

[BballTim]

I blame Rondo for one thing...making two dumb fouls early in the first quarter.  As soon as he did that, the C's were in trouble.  It completely ruined any chance at the team getting a rhythm going in the first half.  He needs to be much more careful going forward, and even if means letting Lebron throw one down on a fast break, staying on the floor is much more important than those 2 points.

  KG did the same thing a minute before, one would assume that not letting LeBron get fired up early on was part of Doc's game plan.

[Chris]

I blame Rondo for one thing...making two dumb fouls early in the first quarter.  As soon as he did that, the C's were in trouble.  It completely ruined any chance at the team getting a rhythm going in the first half.  He needs to be much more careful going forward, and even if means letting Lebron throw one down on a fast break, staying on the floor is much more important than those 2 points.

  KG did the same thing a minute before, one would assume that not letting LeBron get fired up early on was part of Doc's game plan.

Yeah, KG's foul was stupid as well (although Rondo's was dumber, since it was his second foul).  I don't think those came from Doc though.  I think the C's in general were not focused to start the game.  They seemed much more interested in "setting the tone" than actually playing their game, and that really hurt them. 

This team is built on execution and poise, and they lost sight of that early in the game.  Hopefully they correct that in game 2.