Chris Brousard - "CP3 won't sign an extension with the c's"

[Moranis]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

New Orleans has no elite scorers and won 46 games in a pretty tough conference last year, with Paul still recovering, West missing 12 games, Okafor missing 10 games, Peja barely playing before being released, mid-season trades, and all sorts of controversy surrounding the ownership of the team.  The 08-09 Hornets under more stable situations was a 49 win team in a very tough western conference with essentially Paul and West being the main offensive focal points and that is with Chandler playing just 45 games and Peja playing 69 games.  The 07-08 Hornets were a 56 win team, again Paul and West the main focal points and with Peja and Chandler playing essentially a full season.  

I like David West a lot, but he isn't anywhere near an elite scorer and yet him and Paul were essentially a 50 win team in 08-09 and a 56 win team in 07-08 with a bunch of role players surrounding them (which is what Peja and Chandler were at that point in their careers).

Rondo doesn't lead those Hornets teams to 49 and 56 wins in the western conference, he just isn't that type of player.  If you surround Rondo with elite level scorers and where you don't need scoring from the PG position, then Rondo is a great PG to have, but he isn't Chris Paul.

[BballTim]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

[Gomesfan]

Has anyone read the Celticstown article about CP3 reaching out to D-12 and saying he wants to play with him ? Dude from CT thinks LA and Boston have the beat assets to make it work between Rondo, expiring contract and picks.
I guess we all can dream.

[PosImpos]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

I understand that your focus is on CP3's regular season stats from last year, which admittedly were below par for him.  I think it's open for debate whether or not CP3 had a better regular season than Rondo last year, or even if it was better, if it was THAT much better.

I think what a lot of us choose to focus on, however, is Paul's past brilliance.  Many of us feel justified in doing so, I believe, because Paul was as good as he's ever been against the Lakers in the first round.  I can understand if you're of the opinion that it could have been just a flash in the pan, and CP3 has permanently regressed, but I disagree.

That's why I'd be willing to take a chance on CP3.  Even if it turned out that CP3 wasn't as spectacular this season as we all hoped, the good news is that we wouldn't be signing him long term until after the regular season and playoffs were over, so we could make a decision then based on 70+ games worth of recent evidence. 

I would be happy with the choice we'd have then: try to enter a quasi-competitive, condensed rebuilding phase with CP3, or let him go and begin a total rebuild immediately.  I'm of the opinion that that would be preferable to trying to rebuild with Rondo.

[Moranis]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

Not when you consider the injury he was recovering from.  It takes everyone a year+ to fully recover from his injury type.  

And this team that barely made the playoffs would have been the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference based on just its 46 wins; however, if it had played in the East based on its results against each conference it would have gained about 3 wins to end at 49-33 (still the 5th seed, but just about 50 wins).

[PosImpos]

It takes everyone a year+ to fully recover from his injury type. 

And this team that barely made the playoffs would have been the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference based on just its 46 wins; however, if it had played in the East based on its results against each conference it would have gained about 3 wins to end at 49-33 (still the 5th seed, but just about 50 wins).

also consider that even at the beginning of last season, when cp3 was just starting to recover from his knee injury, he led the Hornets to one of the best records in the NBA for the first month or two.

[BballTim]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

I understand that your focus is on CP3's regular season stats from last year, which admittedly were below par for him.  I think it's open for debate whether or not CP3 had a better regular season than Rondo last year, or even if it was better, if it was THAT much better.

I think what a lot of us choose to focus on, however, is Paul's past brilliance.  Many of us feel justified in doing so, I believe, because Paul was as good as he's ever been against the Lakers in the first round.  I can understand if you're of the opinion that it could have been just a flash in the pan, and CP3 has permanently regressed, but I disagree.

  As I've said more than once, my concerns about CP3 regressing are based solely on the condition of his knee. But if his play against the Lakers was the best he's ever been, I'd argue that Rondo was better than that against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs. Also, it's worth pointing out that in these playoffs CP3 averaged 30/10/15 in the wins and 18/5/10 in the four losses. So, based on that, he seems to be able to carry his team roughly 1 game out of three.

[BballTim]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

Not when you consider the injury he was recovering from.  It takes everyone a year+ to fully recover from his injury type.  

  I agree, but how sure are you that he'll make a full recovery? How do you know that the numerous reports that claim the opposite is true are incorrect?

[PosImpos]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

I understand that your focus is on CP3's regular season stats from last year, which admittedly were below par for him.  I think it's open for debate whether or not CP3 had a better regular season than Rondo last year, or even if it was better, if it was THAT much better.

I think what a lot of us choose to focus on, however, is Paul's past brilliance.  Many of us feel justified in doing so, I believe, because Paul was as good as he's ever been against the Lakers in the first round.  I can understand if you're of the opinion that it could have been just a flash in the pan, and CP3 has permanently regressed, but I disagree.

  As I've said more than once, my concerns about CP3 regressing are based solely on the condition of his knee. But if his play against the Lakers was the best he's ever been, I'd argue that Rondo was better than that against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs. Also, it's worth pointing out that in these playoffs CP3 averaged 30/10/15 in the wins and 18/5/10 in the four losses. So, based on that, he seems to be able to carry his team roughly 1 game out of three.

Rondo was absolutely fantastic against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs.  He played like the league MVP in that series. 

If Rondo could play even close to that level on a consistent basis, I don't think there's any way that the Celtics would consider trading him.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem that Rondo has the capacity to play at that level night in and night out.  Heck, even in the 2010 playoffs he only seemed to have one series like that in him, since he was still impressive but not nearly as dominant against the Magic and Lakers.

[BballTim]

The team that trades for CP3 now will be able to offer him an extra year and $20+ million more dollars than any other team (using Bird rights). That's why you trade for him now. Do you really think he's going to leave that kind of money sitting on the table? Especially when Boston will have the cap room for another high salary/max player?

And of course CP3 won't sign an extension. He wants a Bird rights max contract, not an extension.

  You're ready to give a point guard with possible knee issues who's been in the league for 6 years and has won 1 playoff series in his career $20+ million a year? Yikes.

Uh. Yes. As is every team in the entire league, apart from maybe the team that has Deron Williams.

I would hope that the team who has a point guard who is right there with those guys (and has two good knees) signed for the next four seasons for about $11.5 million per year would pass on that deal.

Look around, Rajon Rondo's deal is about the best value for the money in the NBA right now.  With the limitations of the new CBA, I don't know why in the world we would trade him in for a point guard with questionable knees who is either going to walk at the end of the year or cost $8.5 million more per season.

I'm sticking with our guy if I'm Danny Ainge.

the fact that Rondo's contract is a great bargain won't matter much if he's our best player in two years and we're fighting to win 40 games and make the playoffs.

in other words, having a premier talent to build around is more important than having the best bargain contracts.

  So fighting to win 43-44 games with Paul at about $9M more is preferable?

Indeed, because you wouldnt need to put as much talent around cp3 to win 50 games.


Rondo is a very talented player, but he's not a premier player in the sense that he's not a player who can carry a team on a nightly basis.  Thats not his game.  He needs scorers he can set up.

  Paul didn't even lead his team in scoring last year. Someone who finished 40th in the league in scoring isn't really a premier scorer. He scored less than Ray did, and I don't think people would say Ray carried the team in scoring on a nightly basis last year. Clearly you'd need to surround CP3 with a scorer or or two to get up to 50 wins.

  Rondo won't carry a team with scoring on a nightly basis (although he's clearly capable of scoring more than he does) but his impact on an offense can be the same as players that score more points than he does.

Paul might not have led his team in scoring last year, but last year was his career low in points per game.  He did average 22 a game in the playoffs though.  Plus, you normally wouldnt expect your teams point guard to lead the team in scoring.  CP3 is capable in leading his team in scoring every night, but like Rondo...he's a distributer whose impact goes beyond the scoring directly attributed to him.  The thing is, that CP CAN carry his teams offense himself when necessary.  If the team is rolling, he'll just distribute.  When they need points, he can take over and create his own offense (and a lot of it).

  If that's true then, judging by the fact that the Hornets barely made the playoffs you'd have to assume he does an abysmal job of recognizing when the team's rolling and when it isn't. The fact that he's 26 or so and hitting a career low in scoring while his assists also declined is the issue.

I understand that your focus is on CP3's regular season stats from last year, which admittedly were below par for him.  I think it's open for debate whether or not CP3 had a better regular season than Rondo last year, or even if it was better, if it was THAT much better.

I think what a lot of us choose to focus on, however, is Paul's past brilliance.  Many of us feel justified in doing so, I believe, because Paul was as good as he's ever been against the Lakers in the first round.  I can understand if you're of the opinion that it could have been just a flash in the pan, and CP3 has permanently regressed, but I disagree.

  As I've said more than once, my concerns about CP3 regressing are based solely on the condition of his knee. But if his play against the Lakers was the best he's ever been, I'd argue that Rondo was better than that against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs. Also, it's worth pointing out that in these playoffs CP3 averaged 30/10/15 in the wins and 18/5/10 in the four losses. So, based on that, he seems to be able to carry his team roughly 1 game out of three.

Rondo was absolutely fantastic against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs.  He played like the league MVP in that series. 

If Rondo could play even close to that level on a consistent basis, I don't think there's any way that the Celtics would consider trading him.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem that Rondo has the capacity to play at that level night in and night out.  Heck, even in the 2010 playoffs he only seemed to have one series like that in him, since he was still impressive but not nearly as dominant against the Magic and Lakers.

 Yes, for all the talk about free throws and jump shots, staying healthy in the playoffs has been a big problem for him as well.

[PosImpos]

 Yes, for all the talk about free throws and jump shots, staying healthy in the playoffs has been a big problem for him as well.

I just think that when Rondo is at his best, his style of play is both dominant and unsustainable, and that's the biggest problem.  In order for Rondo to play to his full potential he needs to totally sacrifice himself.  That explains his maddening inconsistency at least as much as his purported moodiness.

I know this is beating the brittle skeleton of a long-dead horse at this point, but I think that the lack of sustainability is due in large part to Rondo's poor jumpshot.  In order to score -- and sometimes even to create shots for teammates -- he has to sacrifice himself.  He can't have a big impact while playing a low-impact style.

That's why I think it's fair to wonder, even if Rondo has two pristine knees and CP3 only has one, if CP3's game will actually age much better than Rondo's.

[Fafnir]

That's why I think it's fair to wonder, even if Rondo has two pristine knees and CP3 only has one, if CP3's game will actually age much better than Rondo's.

This is definitely true, look at how well Pierce's game has aged compared to many of his contemparies who didn't have as well rounded of skillset.

[BballTim]

Rondo was absolutely fantastic against the Cavs in the 2010 playoffs.  He played like the league MVP in that series. 

If Rondo could play even close to that level on a consistent basis, I don't think there's any way that the Celtics would consider trading him.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem that Rondo has the capacity to play at that level night in and night out.  Heck, even in the 2010 playoffs he only seemed to have one series like that in him, since he was still impressive but not nearly as dominant against the Magic and Lakers.

  It's also worth noting that Rondo was playing like a solid MVP candidate the first 6 weeks or so of the season last year until he succumbed to injuries.

[BballTim]

 Yes, for all the talk about free throws and jump shots, staying healthy in the playoffs has been a big problem for him as well.

I just think that when Rondo is at his best, his style of play is both dominant and unsustainable, and that's the biggest problem.  In order for Rondo to play to his full potential he needs to totally sacrifice himself.  That explains his maddening inconsistency at least as much as his purported moodiness.

I know this is beating the brittle skeleton of a long-dead horse at this point, but I think that the lack of sustainability is due in large part to Rondo's poor jumpshot.  In order to score -- and sometimes even to create shots for teammates -- he has to sacrifice himself.  He can't have a big impact while playing a low-impact style.

  He clearly had a big impact while playing a low-impact style for much of last year. He was dominating games while hardly shooting the ball.

[PosImpos]

 Yes, for all the talk about free throws and jump shots, staying healthy in the playoffs has been a big problem for him as well.

I just think that when Rondo is at his best, his style of play is both dominant and unsustainable, and that's the biggest problem.  In order for Rondo to play to his full potential he needs to totally sacrifice himself.  That explains his maddening inconsistency at least as much as his purported moodiness.

I know this is beating the brittle skeleton of a long-dead horse at this point, but I think that the lack of sustainability is due in large part to Rondo's poor jumpshot.  In order to score -- and sometimes even to create shots for teammates -- he has to sacrifice himself.  He can't have a big impact while playing a low-impact style.

  He clearly had a big impact while playing a low-impact style for much of last year. He was dominating games while hardly shooting the ball.

His ability to do that, though, goes back, i think, to the ability of his teammates to score.  Will rondo be able to dominate with low impact when he has to carry a much heavier scoring burden? Im inclined to think not.