I wonder how much of the tension is attributed to Rondo not being shy about his preference of Avery Bradley in the starting lineup? Paul and KG avoided the topic, but Rondo said something along the lines of liking how Avery has the legs to get out and run with him and his cutting to the basket brings a new dimension to the offense. If Rondo was open in public, there's little doubt he open about behind closed doors.
In all honesty though, that's exactly what I want from our key players. If something is helping the team, speak up. I lost some respect for Ray this year, I think he could have handled becoming the 6th man far more gracefully than he did. That's why I like the Jason Terry signing - he fully embraces coming off of the bench and puts the team above his ego.
Find me somewhere that implicates Ray not taking on that role gracefully? Seriously, these are top level competitors, of course there's going to be some discontent at losing a starting job, but at the end of the day Ray took it and played it through without causing trouble.
I have a feeling that people would be content with a roster full of losers.
Has anyone paid attention to rondo off the court (in interviews and other off court instances)? The seems like a real pain in the butt to deal with. If he were my teammate, rondo would drive me nuts too. I've seen enough to be sure of that.
This is not news. Everyone on the team has already alluded to it and I believe it is part of the reason he has been on the block. Looks like the others have learned to deal with it but not ray.
Yes, Rondo is irritating, but Ray seems to take himself way too seriously, with an overblown and fragile ego. Still, according to the report in the Herald today, it was on-court issues that were the final deal-breaker.
I can only imagine Rondo tired of having to wait all day for a slower Ray to get free and that Ray blamed Rondo rather than himself for not subsequently getting more shots.
Has anyone ever heard of a teammate not named rondo not get along with Ray? Not me. On the other hand, just about every teammate has pointed to how difficult rondo is. So no, this is more on rondo than ray.
Budweiser, do you consider Jason Terry a loser because he embraces coming off the bench? In the end Ray came off the bench but not after doing a really bad job of hiding his anger with it. Even Doc admitted at the end of the season that Ray wasn't happy becoming a 6th man.
No, it doesn't mean that. But these guys are competitors, and taking offense to someone from Ray's caliber not embracing a 6th man role is a bit foolish. At times all you can ask is for them to bite the bullet for the sake of the team, but to be "happy" about it, is quite unfair to them. It was that competitive nature that has made these types of players into future hall of famers. That said, while Ray was not happy with the change of roles, he didn't make too much of a fuss about it. He did the sacrifice for the team without causing discord.
There are all sort of players around the league, with different roles, but I'm personally not going to go and look to invest a huge amount of money on a player who's just going to be happy about losing his starting job after 16 years in the league, further more, late in a season which you have been playing well; to a 2nd year player at that who only has a few good games to his name.
Different circumstances and all that. Jason Terry started the season as the 6th man from the start of a season, he had time to prepare for it, and one of the main components of that decision was that they had Barea as the starting PG, and he was very small which made him playing along side Terry problematic. It wasn't from a perceived deteriorating game, like how it must have felt to Ray.
And yes, we all know Rondo can be prickly. But one thing he's done well over the last 5 yrs is distribute touches to 3 Hall of Famers. We often hear praise about his ability to find the open man, to get guys looks exactly where they're most effective. You can all stay in denial if you want, but over the last season or so Ray has had more issues getting separation coming off screens. Go and watch some game film of Rondo standing at the 3 point line, dribbling out the clock - its always because he's waiting for Ray to come off screens and get open. So of course, when Ray doesn't do that, it hurts the offensive possession.
I know Rondo has a difficult job to do, but it's his job to do. The thing is though, Rondo standing at the 3 point line dribbling out the clock to wait for Ray to com off screens I find it to be a Rondo problem rather than a Ray problem. Rondo needs to do quicker decisions. If the Ray option is not there, it isn't there so you move to the next target, you don't wait until it's 10 seconds left in the shot clock to do your next move.
Also, the Rondo dribbling in the 3-point line is not a waiting for Ray thing, it occurs in numerous different plays.
The fact still remains, that Ray does get himself open quite frequently without getting the obvious pass, and I don't know why that is. My theory is that when Ray gets open, Rondo likes to have a look-a-round to see what else is there, and when he sees nothing's there and finally gives the ball to Ray, it's a bit too late. Sometimes Rondo does this and does find a good option to a cutter, but many times he doesn't, which wastes a good opportunity to one of the best 3-point shooters in the game.
It's a tough job, but it's up to Rondo to do it and find the balance. Interesting enough, when Rondo pushes the ball (which sadly is not as often as one would like), the ball movement improves and Ray often gets the touches in the appropriate manner.
As Charles Barkley likes to say, "father time is undefeated". Ray HAS lost a step. He's still a great shooter, but he can't create the separation coming off of screens as well as he once did.
It's quite easy to say when all the recent evidence is of a Ray who was injured. Ray Allen had a great season last year, one of his best shooting wise while he was healthy. In fact, he was the only one of the big 3 who actually showed up to play at the start of the season, and at a high level at that. Also, the first to be sacrificed. Which is fine by me, as I actually liked him coming of the bench, but I'm not going to hold it against him if he wasn't all jolly about it.
Your analysis is usually very sound Budweiser, but your standards for Rondo have always been excessively high.
Oh, I'm the first to admit that my standards for Rondo are quite high, and I think there's reason for it as he's shown that he can meet those standards. Which just adds to the frustration when he's not meeting some of those expectations, and at times to the detriment of the team.
But as high as my expectations are for him, I think I ask very little of him. I don't care about his shooting woes for example. I really only care about him pushing the ball, good defensive positioning, and keep the ball-movement. I think the rest works itself out.
In the end though, as I've said from the beginning as it concerns Rondo, it all parallels your role and responsibility on this team. If Rondo, while being the same type of player with the same skill-set, had a lesser role here with less responsibility, I wouldn't be so hard on him. But fact is that the keys have been handed to him, and any misstep from him has exponential impact because of it.
It may be unfair to him, but I want to win championships.
It's true Ray was the only member of the big three to show up and play well at the beginning of the season. But Ray having trouble getting seperation has been going on for a while, not just this year. People complain about the "Ray running through multiple screens to get open" play taking too long to run because it actually does take much more time for Ray to run it than it used to.
And I'm with you, the more reason why Rondo can't stand around waiting for him to get open, which is why I've been calling for him to make quicker decisions.
It's all right to do it once in a while to involve him, but it's foolish to wait the whole shot-clock for it.
All I'm saying that we shouldn't be using Ray being slow as an excuse for Rondo not moving the ball.
This is what needs to happen to Ray though, he gets great separation when he's doing curls at free-throw level. He gets in trouble when he extends to the 3-point line because it allows defenders to catch up to him.
My main problem though, aside from when there's a lack of ballmovement, is all the times Rondo misses Ray in transition opportunities (interestingly enough he often passes it to Ray when he cuts to the basket in a fastbreak, which I hate). Also, when Rondo penetrates, he also misses Ray often in the perimeter.
Which adds to the frustration with Ray, since as you say, he does have a bit more trouble getting open, so when he manages it and doesn't get it well, it's a bit hard to swallow at times.
I always felt the best recipe was for Rondo to push the ball, things always seem to work themselves out when that happens. And it did during the playoffs many a times, sadly we saw how Ray couldn't hit a bucket due to his injuries, but the same plan needs to be in place when he's healthy.
Topic: Wojnarowski: Ray and Rondo don't have a great relationship (Read 23621 times)