is Rondo becoming a clutch shooter??

[cman88]

Rondo made some clutch jumpers last night in the fourth, and also last series he's been hitting the last second shot/3pointer pretty well.

is Rondo starting to become someone who can hit the clutch shots and take over in the 4th?

[hpantazo]

Rondo made some clutch jumpers last night in the fourth, and also last series he's been hitting the last second shot/3pointer pretty well.

is Rondo starting to become someone who can hit the clutch shots and take over in the 4th?

He did hit some clutch jumpers last night, and his jumpshot overall is much improved this year. If he can keep that up, no one can beat us.

[Celtics4ever]

He is trying to step up.   I would say that at present rather than label him as a clutch shooter.   Too little body of work of him being clutch at present.

[BenHenry]

Rondo made some clutch jumpers last night in the fourth, and also last series he's been hitting the last second shot/3pointer pretty well.

is Rondo starting to become someone who can hit the clutch shots and take over in the 4th?

I AGREE THAT HE WAS CLUTCH IN THE FINAL MINUTES OF LAST NIGHT'S GAME! I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE IN HIS LAYUPS OR TAKE BETTER LOOKS ON LAYUPS. ONE OR TWO GAMES DOES NOT MAKE HIM CLUTCH BUT ITS A GOOD START ESPECIALLY IN THE PLAYOFFS! NOW IF HIS SHOOTING BRINGS US BANNER 18 THEN I WOULD CALL THAT CLUTCH! EXCUSE ME IF I SOUND LIKE IM YELLING, IT'S JUST THAT IM STILL EXCITED FROM LAST NIGHT'S DOWN TO THE WIRE WIN!

[clover]

He's a clutch doesn't-turn-into-an-idiot and sometimes that probably looks pretty good to Doc.

[scaryjerry]

Im not sure you can go there just yet...but he wants and is willing to take and and is confident in making them now...which is nice....i find it interesting how we all wanted him to become a jump shooter and while he slowly has this year...he also hasnt finished as well around the rim at all in my opinion

[Meadowlark_Scal]

I think a lot of people take Rondo's exceptional passing skills for granted, and also his rebounding, dribbling, and seeing the whole floor.....this is so because they are always asking for MORE from him. There isn't anyone else that is asked to do all this.....most are asked to just shoot 50%, or 33-35% from 3 land......Rondo has to do it all to be considered good. Triple-doubles....who else is doing this...no one..... "yes but we want more..."

  And then there is the cp3 thing.....if he is so great, how come he hasn't led anyone, anywhere...? How many more allstars do you have to couple cp3 with to make him look like a real leader, and not allen iverson...?

 You look at rondo to shoot the needed points, when you know your lazy stars have shot 3 for 19, no layups, no D....but "they could make the important one".....they are all important in the playoffs.......and if the stars made more of the passes that they got, rondo wouldn't have to do it all.

They leave rondo open to shoot his shot....but if you look, no one on our team is moving at that point.....as if they aren't helping either....and you know no Celtic will go for the rebound either.....so who are THEY heping there.....is this pickup, or a TEAMS run for the CHAMPIONSHIP......When your pg picks up his dribble, you are supposed to MOVE to him, or make an opening....if you stand there, you aren't heping your team.....

  He has shown he can shoot, but all shooters have to shoot a lot to get it going...you give him no room for those misses you forgive for the rest..and HE is the only one that will go for THEIR misses.....

[Meadowlark_Scal]

A point i wanted to focus on is that Rondo chose to work on his team-leading skills while cp3 chose to work on his scoring skills...Jordon and others had to learn this...allen iverson never did......NY has a lot of great indiviuals....who do not understand TEAM SACRIFICE.......there are great indiviual players, and then there are those that are GREAT TEAM players...it takes MUCH more to be a great team player/leader...!!!  This is one point you might need to play in a league and pickup on the side to understand the diff.....

[pork3]

Rondo made some clutch jumpers last night in the fourth, and also last series he's been hitting the last second shot/3pointer pretty well.

is Rondo starting to become someone who can hit the clutch shots and take over in the 4th?

I AGREE THAT HE WAS CLUTCH IN THE FINAL MINUTES OF LAST NIGHT'S GAME! I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE IN HIS LAYUPS OR TAKE BETTER LOOKS ON LAYUPS. ONE OR TWO GAMES DOES NOT MAKE HIM CLUTCH BUT ITS A GOOD START ESPECIALLY IN THE PLAYOFFS! NOW IF HIS SHOOTING BRINGS US BANNER 18 THEN I WOULD CALL THAT CLUTCH! EXCUSE ME IF I SOUND LIKE IM YELLING, IT'S JUST THAT IM STILL EXCITED FROM LAST NIGHT'S DOWN TO THE WIRE WIN!

My eyes, my eyes!!!!!!!

-Jamman

[Finkelskyhook]

Becoming?

[guava_wrench]

He has hit that midrange jumper enough for me to believe teams can't give it too him anymore, especially with Ray unable to hit a 3.

While I think talking 'clutch' is often a lot of hype, I believe 100% that there are guys who are afraid to shoot at certain moments and it leads to poorer mechanics when they have to shoot. I feel like Rondo used to be more likely to miss horribly on jumpers in late game situations while now he looks very confident.

[LarBrd33]

I think a lot of people take Rondo's exceptional passing skills for granted, and also his rebounding, dribbling, and seeing the whole floor.....this is so because they are always asking for MORE from him. There isn't anyone else that is asked to do all this.....most are asked to just shoot 50%, or 33-35% from 3 land......Rondo has to do it all to be considered good. Triple-doubles....who else is doing this...no one..... "yes but we want more..."

  And then there is the cp3 thing.....if he is so great, how come he hasn't led anyone, anywhere...? How many more allstars do you have to couple cp3 with to make him look like a real leader, and not allen iverson...?

 You look at rondo to shoot the needed points, when you know your lazy stars have shot 3 for 19, no layups, no D....but "they could make the important one".....they are all important in the playoffs.......and if the stars made more of the passes that they got, rondo wouldn't have to do it all.

They leave rondo open to shoot his shot....but if you look, no one on our team is moving at that point.....as if they aren't helping either....and you know no Celtic will go for the rebound either.....so who are THEY heping there.....is this pickup, or a TEAMS run for the CHAMPIONSHIP......When your pg picks up his dribble, you are supposed to MOVE to him, or make an opening....if you stand there, you aren't heping your team.....

  He has shown he can shoot, but all shooters have to shoot a lot to get it going...you give him no room for those misses you forgive for the rest..and HE is the only one that will go for THEIR misses.....

Nah.  Rondo is brilliant in most aspects of the game, but he's deeply flawed in that he is a horribly inconsistent shooter.  His percentages shooting are all below the league average (in other words, from 7-9 feet, 10-15 feet, etc).  Hands down he's the least trustworthy shooter of all the elite point guards.  Chris Paul can score at will.  Rose can score at will.  Deron Williams can knock down shots or post up smaller guards.  Steve Nash is arguably the best shooter alive.  Westbrook is a dynamic scorer.  Kyrie Irving is 19 and already looks like a future superstar because of his shooting.  Rondo doesn't have that.  WHen the game is on the line, at no point do you tell yourself, "Oh it's ok... Rondo is going to knock down some shots here".   We almost exclusively have to rely on the big 3 to hit shots (often with Rondo passing them the ball coming off screens).  Rondo traditionally was notorious for completely disappearing at the end of games.  His shooting is ghastly, but on top of that he usually shows a real hesitancy to drive inside, because he's about as reliable as Shaquille O'Neal shooting free throws.  So Rondo traditionally disappears while Pierce, Ray and sometimes KG get it done. 

That's why last night seemed so shocking.  He knocked down a bunch of huge shots with the game on the line.  As far as I know, that's rather rare.  I'm not sure if you can say he's "becoming a clutch shooter".  Are there other examples of these huge shots that people can think of?  Maybe I'm just blacking them out.   But last night... he most definitely was clutch for us.  Rondo has the luxury of almost never getting defended beyond 4 feet.  While the rest of those guys are usually double and triple teamed... Rondo is pretty much always wide open.  I'm sure other teams would be more than comfortable "living and dying" with Rajon Rondo jump shots.  Hopefully Rondo can make this aberration a regular thing. 

BTW... side tangent:   CHris Paul is not only the best point guard alive, but he's arguably the best pure point guard EVER.  I listened to a podcast last night where Bill Simmons and Steve Kerr both agreed that Paul might be the best "pure point" to ever play the game (not necessarily the best point guard, though... that would be Magic Johnson).  Paul is unbelievable.  I think it's silly when people say stuff like, "Well Rondo won a championship" as an argument of why he's better than a Paul or Rose.  Rondo won a title as a role player (at most the team's 4th best player that year).  That's like telling me Brian Scalabrine is better than LeBron James, because Scal won a championship.  Get real.

[Surferdad]

No.

See post above by LarBird33.

[Celtics18]

Well, his shot is starting to look more comfortable.  Never mind what he's doing with his elbows and his palms and finger tips, but his foot work looks so much better.  He's squaring up and getting good lift off the floor.  It looks nice.

He's never been a clutch shooter, but he's always been clutch in so many other facets of the game.  Last night was a perfect example of some of those other things he does down the stretch:
Big rebounds, passes, hustle plays, and brilliant Rondoesque plays like the strategic foul and the keep-away to close out the game.

I know he doesn't just try to bull his way into a shot for himself every time like so many other superstars do, but, personally, I appreciate all the areas of the game in which Rajon Rondo makes contributions.

Rondo's always been clutch.

[BballTim]

I think a lot of people take Rondo's exceptional passing skills for granted, and also his rebounding, dribbling, and seeing the whole floor.....this is so because they are always asking for MORE from him. There isn't anyone else that is asked to do all this.....most are asked to just shoot 50%, or 33-35% from 3 land......Rondo has to do it all to be considered good. Triple-doubles....who else is doing this...no one..... "yes but we want more..."

  And then there is the cp3 thing.....if he is so great, how come he hasn't led anyone, anywhere...? How many more allstars do you have to couple cp3 with to make him look like a real leader, and not allen iverson...?

 You look at rondo to shoot the needed points, when you know your lazy stars have shot 3 for 19, no layups, no D....but "they could make the important one".....they are all important in the playoffs.......and if the stars made more of the passes that they got, rondo wouldn't have to do it all.

They leave rondo open to shoot his shot....but if you look, no one on our team is moving at that point.....as if they aren't helping either....and you know no Celtic will go for the rebound either.....so who are THEY heping there.....is this pickup, or a TEAMS run for the CHAMPIONSHIP......When your pg picks up his dribble, you are supposed to MOVE to him, or make an opening....if you stand there, you aren't heping your team.....

  He has shown he can shoot, but all shooters have to shoot a lot to get it going...you give him no room for those misses you forgive for the rest..and HE is the only one that will go for THEIR misses.....

Nah.  Rondo is brilliant in most aspects of the game, but he's deeply flawed in that he is a horribly inconsistent shooter.  His percentages shooting are all below the league average (in other words, from 7-9 feet, 10-15 feet, etc).  Hands down he's the least trustworthy shooter of all the elite point guards.

  Those numbers are fairly noisy and go up and down every year. Rondo has a fairly poor 3 point percentage but if you look at the averages for the other 4 ranges (rim, 3-9, 10-15, 16-23) for starting point guards, Rondo's career averages for each range is within  1% of the average, higher for a couple and lower for the others. Not exactly elite, but for his career he's better than Westbrook in all four ranges.

BTW... side tangent:   CHris Paul is not only the best point guard alive, but he's arguably the best pure point guard EVER.  I listened to a podcast last night where Bill Simmons and Steve Kerr both agreed that Paul might be the best "pure point" to ever play the game (not necessarily the best point guard, though... that would be Magic Johnson). 

  I don't think that Rose or Westbrook are pure point guards, but I don't see why Magic isn't. But Paul is certainly among the all time greats. But consider that in the last 2 playoffs CP3 has averaged 22/7/12 and 21/5/8. Last year before the elbow injury Rondo was 17/7/11 and this year he's 16/7/13.

  So, while it's true that CP3 scores a little better and more efficiently, every post of yours I see about Rondo is critical of him and how poorly he's playing for much of every game. Why is your "best point guard alive" and "best pure point ever" putting up numbers that are only slightly better than (in your opinion) a point guard who's play is fairly mediocre? Wouldn't that be like Kareem or Shaq or Hakeem in their primes putting up numbers that were a little but not a lot better than what Bynum's putting up in the playoffs this year?