You're right about KG, but we aren't a contender without Rondo playing like Rondo. You need to give him more credit-he's not just a great quarterback, he's our most potent offensive weapon. Think about last years playoffs. KG was amazing. But who was better? KG or Rondo?
Simple answer is that without Rondo or KG, we are toast.
It's difficult to answer, but if I had to I would say KG. Whenever KG sat on the bench we were getting our butts absolute whipped by anybody who played against us. If KG wasn't on the team, that would be 48 minutes of butt whipping every night.
While Rondo was on the court we were much worse, but we weren't getting butt whipped as bad as we did when KG sat.
The same is true this season - we almost won the one game we played without Rondo, even with non-natural PG who is new to the team and doesn't know our plays. Without Rondo our team still shot efficiently - something like 50% from the floor - simply because of all the scorers we now have.
Without KG we can still shoot 50% from the floor but it doesn't help us, because our defense is so bad that the opposition can match us point for point...and yet our defense is too horrible to have a hope at stopping them.
I think KG was more important in the Playoffs because he was the first person to really set the tone. He had some massive games, and then when he finally did slow down Rondo filled the void with some massive games of his own. KG was the initial aggressor though - he set the tone with his work ethic, and the entire team followed.
One big thing that seperates the two for me is mentality. Rondo seems to play hard in spurts, when he feels like it. Other times he seems like he's running on cruise control. Many people here have documented Rondo's tendancy to show up for games taht are on the big stage (telecast games, games against big teams, etc) and then fade for the less exciting games. He has a tendancy also to be wreckless at times in an attempt to be flashy and wow the cameras.
KG is 110% effort every single night. He doesn't take games off - if he plays bad it's because he played bad, not because he didn't try. Every night he's out there sweating like a pig and running until he can't run anymore. How many times have you seem him run in front of everybody on the fast break for a finish? Chase down another player on the fast break defensively? Dive to the ground for loose balls? This guy is 36 years old and plays with the energy and desperation of a 22 year old who's trying to earn a contract.
All of this might make it sound like I'm anti Rondo but hell no I'm not. He is right up there in terms of his importance to our team, and I agree that without him we'd have no hope of a title. I just think that KG is that little bit more important.
Without Rondo we'd never win a title, but without KG I doubt we'd even make the playoffs.