The problem with Rondo yesterday and maybe for his career

[BballTim]

I'd like to add that while OKC's style has been successfully, it remains to be seen if they can win it all playing that way.  I wonder if the Thunder would be a better team with Rajon Rondo running the show as a true point guard.  

They wouldn't. Westbrook may be a gunner, but when he has it going he absolutely buries teams (example: Lakers, Los Angeles Game 6). Durant's a better scorer and Harden's probably got a better basketball IQ than either of them, but the Thunder need Westbrook's intensity.


The problem with Rondo is that throughout the game he'll stagnate the offense and fail to drive to the hoop. Of course, there's always the chance that he'll miss the wide open layup, too.

  Westbrook scores much less efficiently than Durant or Harden but takes more shots than either of them. And the stagnating offense is more related to a lineup full of players in their mid-30s than you realize.

To quote Kevin Durant, the Thunder need Westbrook to be taking all those shots. Put a more normal point guard in there and they're not winning games. Now, there's definitely times where you see Westbrook dribble up into the top of the key and launch yet another pull-up two, but that dude works on rhythm. Once he's knocked a few shots down and gets himself going, the ball starts moving.

  When I watch the Thunder and Westbrook isn't scoring he contributes very little to the team. Rondo runs the offense, gets assists, rebounds and plays good defense. Westbrook is a decent rebounder and not really great at anything else besides scoring.

[D Dub]

Westbrook should be a 2

[Larry for 3]

I'd like to add that while OKC's style has been successfully, it remains to be seen if they can win it all playing that way.  I wonder if the Thunder would be a better team with Rajon Rondo running the show as a true point guard.  

They wouldn't. Westbrook may be a gunner, but when he has it going he absolutely buries teams (example: Lakers, Los Angeles Game 6). Durant's a better scorer and Harden's probably got a better basketball IQ than either of them, but the Thunder need Westbrook's intensity.


The problem with Rondo is that throughout the game he'll stagnate the offense and fail to drive to the hoop. Of course, there's always the chance that he'll miss the wide open layup, too.

  Westbrook scores much less efficiently than Durant or Harden but takes more shots than either of them. And the stagnating offense is more related to a lineup full of players in their mid-30s than you realize.

To quote Kevin Durant, the Thunder need Westbrook to be taking all those shots. Put a more normal point guard in there and they're not winning games. Now, there's definitely times where you see Westbrook dribble up into the top of the key and launch yet another pull-up two, but that dude works on rhythm. Once he's knocked a few shots down and gets himself going, the ball starts moving.

  When I watch the Thunder and Westbrook isn't scoring he contributes very little to the team. Rondo runs the offense, gets assists, rebounds and plays good defense. Westbrook is a decent rebounder and not really great at anything else besides scoring.

The issue I have with Rondo is that We need him to score 20 or 25 in this series, game in game out.  and he cant do that. Even with a favorable match up.  And that;s disappointing to me and others , espically after  reading this board and hearing people call him the best PG in the league. This team needs scoring. Let's hope he picks it up tonight. I actually have a good feeling about tonight. Let's get it done guys.

[snively]

I'd like to add that while OKC's style has been successfully, it remains to be seen if they can win it all playing that way.  I wonder if the Thunder would be a better team with Rajon Rondo running the show as a true point guard. 

They wouldn't. Westbrook may be a gunner, but when he has it going he absolutely buries teams (example: Lakers, Los Angeles Game 6). Durant's a better scorer and Harden's probably got a better basketball IQ than either of them, but the Thunder need Westbrook's intensity.


The problem with Rondo is that throughout the game he'll stagnate the offense and fail to drive to the hoop. Of course, there's always the chance that he'll miss the wide open layup, too.

  Westbrook scores much less efficiently than Durant or Harden but takes more shots than either of them. And the stagnating offense is more related to a lineup full of players in their mid-30s than you realize.

To quote Kevin Durant, the Thunder need Westbrook to be taking all those shots. Put a more normal point guard in there and they're not winning games. Now, there's definitely times where you see Westbrook dribble up into the top of the key and launch yet another pull-up two, but that dude works on rhythm. Once he's knocked a few shots down and gets himself going, the ball starts moving.

  When I watch the Thunder and Westbrook isn't scoring he contributes very little to the team. Rondo runs the offense, gets assists, rebounds and plays good defense. Westbrook is a decent rebounder and not really great at anything else besides scoring.

The issue I have with Rondo is that We need him to score 20 or 25 in this series, game in game out.  and he cant do that. Even with a favorable match up.  And that;s disappointing to me and others , espically after  reading this board and hearing people call him the best PG in the league. This team needs scoring. Let's hope he picks it up tonight. I actually have a good feeling about tonight. Let's get it done guys.

Personally, I'd be just as happy with 12+ assists - Rondo's at his best when he's creating made buckets.  They don't have to be his own.

[OmarSekou]

This was the first Rondo thread I saw so I'll post these here:

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2012/05/29/supporting_cast_never_showed_up/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Boston+Celtics+news

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/ian_thomsen/05/27/celtics.76ers.game.7/index.html?eref=writers

They're recent articles from the front page. There were two interesting sections that I thought did a good job of describing Rondo:

Rondo finished with 16 points and 7 assists, shooting 40 percent from the field, as the Heat got creative guarding him.

“They put different guys on me, they shrunk the floor,’’ Rondo said. “It’s just a matter of us making shots and getting stops.’’

Rivers added that Rondo wasn’t able to play his normal game, that he was thinking too much.

“He’s got to be better in attack,’’ Rivers said. “I thought the second quarter he was attacking and attacking. I thought he was reading a lot instead of playing on his instincts. You can’t read and play at speed at the same time.’’

Rivers has done his most important work with Rondo, who so often makes the game look easier than it ought to be. On the nights when he struggles to create, as he did in a Game 6 loss at Philadelphia and then for more than three quarters of Game 7, he tends to be hard on himself and everyone else. In the first half there was a bounce pass on the break that spun out of Brandon Bass' fingertips as Rondo turned away at midcourt, angry with the world. As the Sixers shot free throws moments later, Rondo stood far away, hands on his knees, his head down. Allen came over to pick him up, and then on his way to the bench for a timeout, he was stopped by Rivers. It was one of many conversations they would have in which Rivers urged him to be upbeat while also providing him with the kind of technical advice that Rondo craves.

"He's mad at Bass too, but he's mad at himself," said Rivers. "I told him, 'Tough pass for (Bass) to handle, he struggles with the bounce pass.' And Rondo's like, 'He can catch that.' And I said, 'No, he can't.'

"'He can catch that!' -- that's Rondo," continued Rivers by recollection. "'I said, `OK, he can catch that. But you've got to keep it going.' The one time you could see him on the bench, he had his head down, he was fighting it. And he just came out, he was ready to play again. It's just great to see."

Rivers was describing a young player who is learning to control his moods. It is an endless battle for everyone vested in the Celtics and Rondo, and it is also a small price to pay for all that he provides. Without him -- and there is no replacing him because no one in the NBA is like him -- the Celtics would have been out of contention and dismantled years ago. In order to make the most of him, Rivers asked him twice to draw up plays during timeouts in order to give his teammates a second look when Rivers arrived to show it to them again. "You could see everybody was already there," said Rivers, making a joke of his players' occasional difficulty to understand the plays, "and with some of our guys that's very important. That's how good he is with stuff. He can draw it up just like I can draw it up."

Most players can't turn their knowledge of basketball into the art of drawing plays, but Rondo has a natural ear for that kind of music. When Allen was in the midst of a 1-for-10 start from the field in which he missed all five of his threes, Rivers benched him after he passed away successive shots. "He was wide-open and passed up the shot, and when we took him out I went over to him and said, 'Hey, listen, we're not going to have that,'" said Rivers. Because the Celtics need Allen to shoot, whether he's making them or not, in order to space the floor and force the defense to respect his ever-present threat. "And he just said, 'My foot's killing me. I need a break. I'm good.' And I told him again, I said, 'Ray, listen, you don't ever pass up shots.' The biggest part was Rondo went over there and told him the same thing, which I thought was great for Ray to hear, confidence-wise."

I think Rondo is a double edged sword. The same things that make him great are the things that hurt him.

[D.o.s.]

Westbrook should be a 2

He is, more or less. The thunder really have three shooting guards (Durant, Harden, and Westbrook), and when they're not scoring in transition one of those three is usually playing some kind of isolation.

Which is a big, big, problem for them.

[BballTim]

I'd like to add that while OKC's style has been successfully, it remains to be seen if they can win it all playing that way.  I wonder if the Thunder would be a better team with Rajon Rondo running the show as a true point guard.  

They wouldn't. Westbrook may be a gunner, but when he has it going he absolutely buries teams (example: Lakers, Los Angeles Game 6). Durant's a better scorer and Harden's probably got a better basketball IQ than either of them, but the Thunder need Westbrook's intensity.


The problem with Rondo is that throughout the game he'll stagnate the offense and fail to drive to the hoop. Of course, there's always the chance that he'll miss the wide open layup, too.

  Westbrook scores much less efficiently than Durant or Harden but takes more shots than either of them. And the stagnating offense is more related to a lineup full of players in their mid-30s than you realize.

To quote Kevin Durant, the Thunder need Westbrook to be taking all those shots. Put a more normal point guard in there and they're not winning games. Now, there's definitely times where you see Westbrook dribble up into the top of the key and launch yet another pull-up two, but that dude works on rhythm. Once he's knocked a few shots down and gets himself going, the ball starts moving.

  When I watch the Thunder and Westbrook isn't scoring he contributes very little to the team. Rondo runs the offense, gets assists, rebounds and plays good defense. Westbrook is a decent rebounder and not really great at anything else besides scoring.

The issue I have with Rondo is that We need him to score 20 or 25 in this series, game in game out.  and he cant do that. Even with a favorable match up.  And that;s disappointing to me and others , espically after  reading this board and hearing people call him the best PG in the league. This team needs scoring. Let's hope he picks it up tonight. I actually have a good feeling about tonight. Let's get it done guys.

  The team does better when Rondo is getting a lot of assists than a lot of points. Both would be nice though.