You're telling me Rondo has a more favorable matchup in the playoffs being guarded by DWade, Mario Chalmers, and Lebron James than he does against Goran Dragic, Kirk Heinrich, and Kyle Lowry?
In the playoffs defenses are FAR better. Yet in the playoffs we see Rondo have a triple double every three games. We see him drop 44 points. We see 15-15-15 games. In the regular season we see 10-10 with mediocre defense where he gambles and doesn't fight through picks or hustle in transition. That is not a superstar. Playoff Rondo is a superstar. Regular season Rondo is a borderline top 5 PG.
We need superstar Rondo if we want to be a truly great team.
And while I don't really like how Rondo takes nights off, mid-season games vs the Raptors or Bobcats aren't going to keep us from becoming a great team. Our lack of a solid back up to KG who can play center might, but not mid-season losses.
Some of our losses this season:
Bucks 99-88
Pistons 103-83
Nets 102-97
Nets 95-83
Bucks 91-88
Rockets 101-89
Bucks 99-94
Kings 118-96
In almost all of those games Rondo didn't produce or got lit up defensively or both.
Don't agree with blaming Rondo for some of those losses...
Bucks & Pistons game: got lit up but still produced his season averages, and the team as a whole sucked (especially the starters)
Nets: didn't play -out with ankle injury
Nets: only played two quarters due to ejection, but his fault
Bucks: didn't play -serving 1 game suspension
Rockets: had a line of 15/13/4/.462FG% and Lin played terribly...it was Greg Smith and Chandler Parsons who burned us
Bucks: played badly
Kings: played badly
And just as easily as you can name bad games Rondo had where we lost, I can name five more where he played well, was not on National TV or against a good opponent, and we won:
Nov 7th vs Washington (without Wall)
18pts, 14ast, 4rbs, .636FG%
Nov 12th vs Chicago (without Rose)
20pts, 10asts, 9rbs, .625FG%
Nov 25th vs Orlando (below .500 team)
15pts, 16ast, 10rbs, .467FG%
Dec 5th vs Minnesota (without Rubio)
17pts, 11ast, 1rb, .545FG%
Dec 19th vs Cleveland (below .500 team)
20pts, 8ast, 4rbs, .636FG%
He also had his highest assist night (20) against Toronto, and two of his crappiest games against the leagues top teams:
Dec 15th vs San Antonio
6pts, 9ast, 5rbs, .429FG%
Dec 27th vs LAC
10pts, 6ast, 5rbs, .333FG%
So, it's just not true that Rondo only shows up in big games, or against big name opponents. The effort level is there most of the time, it's just when it's not it's so noticeable because of the effect he has on both ends of the court.