Rondo was still hesitant to take the mid range jumper in game 7..Deron Williams?

[rondohondo]

I'm obviously not blaming the loss on Rondo, he was our best player. He still doesn't take that mid range jumper consistantly enough for me. After going off in game 2 for 44 points, I thought for sure he had turned the corner when it comes to confidence in his jumper.

Last night in the 4th quarter the heat were giving him literally about 5-10 ft of space dropping under picks and daring rondo to shoot. He actually took the jumper 1 time with confidence ( not with the shot clock running down) that I can remember in the 4th .

Our offense in the 2nd half was non existant and Rondo needed to take over, but he couldn't...

I think Rondo took some huge steps forward this post season, but this is the one area where people who want Deron Williams have a point . He can make you pay when you sag off and still averages near 10 assists per game . Look at his career playoff stats too , they are better than Rondo in virtually every area(except assists, but it's close)and I realize stats don't show the whole story,but having a legit shooting threat at the PG while not losing much court vision would take this team to another level I believe.

I am not looking to trade Rondo for anything under a top 20 player , but Deron would be one of those guys I would have to strongly consider .

[cman88]

I think Rondo has been taking/making that jumper this post-season alot with more confidence.

if he can come back next year and just take that jumper, when its given to him he can be one of the most dominant players in the NBA

coler me in the NO camp on deron williams...I have no faith that guy would even stay around if things started to go south. Rondo is a star on a friendly contract, and is a fierce competitor

[Tr1boy]

Part of the blame was no doubt bc of rondo. Rondo for how many years has been played off the ball at crucial games?? Game 6 and 7 heat were smart to emulate what lakers did last on him in the playoffs

Dare him to shoot. Nothing though. If he doesn't shoot and get balls in, other guys are tired of running around through screens. If he makes shots, things opens up for him and everyone else

Game 2 Rondo would be the best pg in the nba. But he just can't do that on a consistent basis.

If i were him after this loss, i would take a million shots this off summer to improve and have confidence in his shot. He needs to get more comfortable shooting. Otherwise i liked what he did in game 2 and try a few jumpers early in the game, to establish a shooting rhythm

[vlad_cruz]

Relatively new here so hi I guess. anyway on the OP. I'm a little bit split.

I think one, on your point on taking over the 2nd half, he did that to a certain extent. he was certainly better than a lot of our guys during that stretch. he scored 10 in the 3rd to keep us in the game going into the 4th. and he scored 6 in the 4th compared to everyone else who combined for a whopping 9 points. On the jumper part.

I think we can all agree that he is clearly a better jumpshooter. Now we can safely classify him as a streaky jumpshooter unlike in the past where he was hit or miss(most of the time miss). The jumpshots there, we see it, now its just a matter of being more consistent rather than streaky.

I fully expect him to continue that trend next year and after seeing his postgame presser last night, I'm even willing to go as far as saying that he'll be on a totally different level next year

[Tr1boy]

Relatively new here so hi I guess. anyway on the OP. I'm a little bit split.

I think one, on your point on taking over the 2nd half, he did that to a certain extent. he was certainly better than a lot of our guys during that stretch. he scored 10 in the 3rd to keep us in the game going into the 4th. and he scored 6 in the 4th compared to everyone else who combined for a whopping 9 points. On the jumper part.

I think we can all agree that he is clearly a better jumpshooter. Now we can safely classify him as a streaky jumpshooter unlike in the past where he was hit or miss(most of the time miss). The jumpshots there, we see it, now its just a matter of being more consistent rather than streaky.

I fully expect him to continue that trend next year and after seeing his postgame presser last night, I'm even willing to go as far as saying that he'll be on a totally different level next year

I hope so. bc if he wants a long basketball career, there is no way , he can play like this 5 years from now. He has to score majority of his points by being able to make jump shots

[KGs Knee]

Said it last night and I'll say it again.  There is not one single player in the entire league I would trade Rondo for.

He may not be the absolute best player, but besides being a borderline top 10 player, he epitomizes everything it means to be a Celtic.  Dude has some serious KG in him, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Yes, he was a little hesitant in the 4th qtr last night though.  I just kept yelling at the TV for Rondo to take the darn game over, but he kept looking for the other guys.  You could visibly see KG/Pierce/Allen were on fumes.  They had nothing left.  Rondo was the only one who could keep up, but the "PG" in him wouldn't step aside and allow the "scorer" in him to take over.

I am willing to bet next year we see the complete transformation from him though.  Dude put up 44 pts in game 2.  Sure they lost game 2, and sure it wasn't the 4th qtr of game 7.  He will be ready next year.  Bank on it.

I will not be surprised if Rondo becomes a top 5 player next year.

[vlad_cruz]

I hope so. bc if he wants a long basketball career, there is no way , he can play like this 5 years from now. He has to score majority of his points by being able to make jump shots

I think he will. Watching his presser last night, I think he feels responsible for how things ended not because of what he felt he didn't do, cause he basically did everything last night, but because he DID give everything he had and it still wasn't enough.

Last nights loss really hurt him, and will definitely stick with him. And that's why I think this will be his turning point. He hates losing and above all else, he hates losing the way he did last night (and quite frankly he hates the people he lost to).

[scaryjerry]

LOL

downgrade?

[greenpride32]

I think Doc, Rondo, and the team know he's not a good outside shooter.  They didn't want a game 7 to be decided by his jump shot; perhaps the reason for him not shooting.  But what he can do is drive to the rim.  I would have liked to see him try that and kick it out if the Heat packed the paint.  But it just turned out to be passive Rondo, and the C's not generating any kind of offense.

I don't understand why so many people think Rondo is such a key offensive cog.  We've seen this scenario so many times (the Lakers did it to us too); play off Rondo (or maybe a better way to say it is don't even play Rondo) and if he falls out of attack mode our offense is dead. 

[BballTim]

Game 2 Rondo would be the best pg in the nba. But he just can't do that on a consistent basis.

  No player in the history of the nba can play like Rondo did in game 2 on a consistent basis.

[tonyto3690]

People are way too obsessed with scoring.

We would have lost against the Sixers if we had DWill instead of Rondo.

DWill is a better shooter

Rondo is a better scorer
Rondo is a better defender
Rondo is a better passer
Rondo has better court vision
Rondo has a much higher basketball IQ
Rondo is the leader of the team
Rondo is a coach on the floor
Rondo makes his teammates better


Yeah, DWill would score more points than Rondo in all likelyhood.

We'd also be significantly worse as a team because every other player would be significantly worse with DWill instead of Rondo and our defense would be significantly worse.

[GrandTheftRondo]

I will never understand the obsession with Deron Williams.

What has he ever done? What has he ever won? Where has he ever led his team?

Oh. He score 57 against the Charlotte Bobcats and got Jerry Sloan fired.

Without Rondo, the Heat series isn't even close. It's a sweep.

I can see its going to be a long off season on CB. Ugh.

[BballTim]

I don't understand why so many people think Rondo is such a key offensive cog.  We've seen this scenario so many times (the Lakers did it to us too); play off Rondo (or maybe a better way to say it is don't even play Rondo) and if he falls out of attack mode our offense is dead. 

  Opposing coaches seem to fit into that category of people who think that Rondo's a key offensive cog. If all you had to do to beat the Celts was play off of Rondo then the team would never win a series in the playoffs. We lose some games with teams playing off of Rondo, we win a lot more. It's not as effective as you think.

[dwayne celtic]

i agree wit tonyto3690

[dwayne celtic]

rondo averaged the most minutes in the playoffs for the celtics the guy had to do everything score,assist,rebound and often times guard lebron and dwade and still averaged close to a triple double in the heat series