Is Rondo the best passer in the game?

[syfy9]

Flashy passes does not translate to being a better passer, it just increases your turnovers.

Stockton was in complete control at all time and was on the basketball IQ level with Larry Bird.

What's better - Blake Griffin doing an easy fast break lay-up, or a thunderous poster dunk? Whenever you can, you want to get the crowd in the game. If you get your audience on your side, you can turn the tides of games.

Rondo can get the crowd into the game with that flashy passing. The cheers help soooo much - he can even get the other team's crowd subconsciously rooting for them!

Flashy passing also throws your opponents off-guard. They'll always be wary that you'll fake them out and lose aggression. Easy passes are always the most efficient, I agree, and you should never try to always do flashy passes, but if you can, then do it. It can demoralize almost as much as a Jordan dunk or a Shaq post up.


Rondo is a pretty smart player too. Stockton was brilliant, but Rondo is one of the brightest basketball players in the game today.

Rondo vs Stockton, one on one. Who wins?
If they're playing Connect 4, I'd vote for Rondo.

[D.o.s.]

Flashy passes does not translate to being a better passer, it just increases your turnovers.

Stockton was in complete control at all time and was on the basketball IQ level with Larry Bird.

What's better - Blake Griffin doing an easy fast break lay-up, or a thunderous poster dunk? Whenever you can, you want to get the crowd in the game. If you get your audience on your side, you can turn the tides of games.

Rondo can get the crowd into the game with that flashy passing. The cheers help soooo much - he can even get the other team's crowd subconsciously rooting for them!

Flashy passing also throws your opponents off-guard. They'll always be wary that you'll fake them out and lose aggression. Easy passes are always the most efficient, I agree, and you should never try to always do flashy passes, but if you can, then do it. It can demoralize almost as much as a Jordan dunk or a Shaq post up.


Rondo is a pretty smart player too. Stockton was brilliant, but Rondo is one of the brightest basketball players in the game today.

Rondo vs Stockton, one on one. Who wins?
If they're playing Connect 4, I'd vote for Rondo.

If they're playing basketball one-on-one, I'd vote for Rondo.

But I'm not sure how much that really reveals about anything.

[BballTim]

Rondo is a very good passer, no doubt. To compare him to the same level as John Stockton is absolute nonsense though. Stockton is the greatest passer to ever play the game. Flashy passes does not translate to being a better passer, it just increases your turnovers. Stockton was in complete control at all time and was on the basketball IQ level with Larry Bird. Wasn't the greatest athlete around, but was so much smarter and fundamentally sound.

  Stockton was very sound fundamentally but he wasn't close to the passer (just to name 2) that Bird or Magic were. He may or may not have had a BBIQ close to Bird's but if he did his "lack of flashiness" kept him from acting on what he saw at the speed Bird did. He was in control all the time but didn't have that extra gear to take over that we see from many others.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Ricky Rubio to me.

Rondo is one of if not the best at creating shots for his teammates. But when it comes to passing, to me it's Rubio.

Rubio can find those tight lanes and make a perfect pass that reaches a teammate right in the hands for the shot. He can see passing lanes that a lot of PG's cant and not only that, he can fool opposing guards to not be able to see it as well.

[guava_wrench]

His single-minded focus on passing has probably helped his development, but if other top passers forced a passing style like Rondo, they might perform just as well. Someone like Kidd isn't going to dribble as long as Rondo. He is going to move the ball around a lot more. That might make his passing no seem as impressive due to less focus on him.

Discussions of who is the best will never end. It is sufficient to say he is a top passer.

[guava_wrench]

Flash is not needed, but deception is.

[WeMadeIt17]

I think so right now in the NBA. He can get the ball anywhere. The passes he made to Ray when ray was in the corner and Rondo at the top of the key and put it over defenders that were face guarding ray was unbelievable. In the game today i don't see anyone thats better, at not only passing but getting the man open for "Their" Shot.

[bucknersrevenge]

Flashy passes does not translate to being a better passer, it just increases your turnovers.

Stockton was in complete control at all time and was on the basketball IQ level with Larry Bird.

What's better - Blake Griffin doing an easy fast break lay-up, or a thunderous poster dunk? Whenever you can, you want to get the crowd in the game. If you get your audience on your side, you can turn the tides of games.

Rondo can get the crowd into the game with that flashy passing. The cheers help soooo much - he can even get the other team's crowd subconsciously rooting for them!

Flashy passing also throws your opponents off-guard. They'll always be wary that you'll fake them out and lose aggression. Easy passes are always the most efficient, I agree, and you should never try to always do flashy passes, but if you can, then do it. It can demoralize almost as much as a Jordan dunk or a Shaq post up.


Rondo is a pretty smart player too. Stockton was brilliant, but Rondo is one of the brightest basketball players in the game today.

Rondo vs Stockton, one on one. Who wins?
If they're playing Connect 4, I'd vote for Rondo.

I don't even think Rondo makes that many flashy passes. He makes flashy layups for sure. He's terrific with those "thread the needle" bounce passes though. That lefty half-court bounce pass to Daniels on the break a couple of years ago in New York, no PG has any business throwing but he can do that. But with KG and Paul gone and a younger, more athletic group left behind, we may actually see more flash in his game than we've seen before though.

[Donoghus]

Best passer?  Absolutely.

Best PG?  Not quite but can be in the discussion when healthy.

[Eddie20]

Ricky Rubio to me.

Rondo is one of if not the best at creating shots for his teammates. But when it comes to passing, to me it's Rubio.

Rubio can find those tight lanes and make a perfect pass that reaches a teammate right in the hands for the shot. He can see passing lanes that a lot of PG's cant and not only that, he can fool opposing guards to not be able to see it as well.

Exactly. He's also my choice as I posted a video several posts before. Rubio just finds the tightest of windows and does it so effortlessly.

[LarBrd33]

The truth is... probably not.

His assist/turnover ratio isn't the best in the league.  He gets a lot of assists, but that's partially because he's a somewhat subpar scorer for a player of his stature.  He scores less, because he takes less shots.  He gets more assists, because he takes less shots.  He takes less shots, because he's not a very good scorer.   There are several point guards in this league that could average as many assists as Rondo if they averaged less shots/points, but there is no point to that since they are better scorers than Rondo and often them taking the shot is the team's best play.

Again... is it better to have a PG who averages 20+ points and 9 assists on extremely efficient shooting?  Or is it better to have a PG who averages 11 assists and only 13 points, because he's a weak scorer?

If Rondo was a better scorer... or if Rondo was asked to score more... he'd average less assists.  And if he averaged less assists, that would effectively kill the main argument for him being the "best passer in the game".

[EJPLAYA]

Flashy passes does not translate to being a better passer, it just increases your turnovers.

Stockton was in complete control at all time and was on the basketball IQ level with Larry Bird.

What's better - Blake Griffin doing an easy fast break lay-up, or a thunderous poster dunk? Whenever you can, you want to get the crowd in the game. If you get your audience on your side, you can turn the tides of games.

Rondo can get the crowd into the game with that flashy passing. The cheers help soooo much - he can even get the other team's crowd subconsciously rooting for them!

Flashy passing also throws your opponents off-guard. They'll always be wary that you'll fake them out and lose aggression. Easy passes are always the most efficient, I agree, and you should never try to always do flashy passes, but if you can, then do it. It can demoralize almost as much as a Jordan dunk or a Shaq post up.


Rondo is a pretty smart player too. Stockton was brilliant, but Rondo is one of the brightest basketball players in the game today.

Rondo vs Stockton, one on one. Who wins?
If they're playing Connect 4, I'd vote for Rondo.

Most flashy passes are unnescessary  ones. They don't give you any extra points. The simple fundamental pass would have gotten there just the same and that one that slips away every 4-5 games out of bounds because you tried to make it flashy never happens. If you don't think that Stockton threw those "thread the needle" bounce passes you never saw him play. There were many examples of that just in that highlight video on here.

 Where Stockton was so much better than everyone else was in his entry passes. He was able to put a ball off the dribble into his post man at the EXACT spot it had to be that allowed the player to maintain his edge and convert an easy bucket. THAT is the definition of a great passer. Under pressure he is able to put the ball right where it needs to be in order for his teammate to get the best shot. I am not saying that Rondo never does, however a large majority of his inbounds passes have been lobs over the top which give the defender the ability to reposition.

I would say that due to his large hands and long wingspan his wraparound passes are some of the best ever though. Physically not many can do that. Rondo is a very good passer and one of the best in the NBA. He is not however in John Stockton's league. Show me double digit assists for 7-8 more seasons and maybe I will reconsider.

[LarBrd33]

The truth is... probably not.

His assist/turnover ratio isn't the best in the league.  He gets a lot of assists, but that's partially because he's a somewhat subpar scorer for a player of his stature.  He scores less, because he takes less shots.  He gets more assists, because he takes less shots.  He takes less shots, because he's not a very good scorer.   There are several point guards in this league that could average as many assists as Rondo if they averaged less shots/points, but there is no point to that since they are better scorers than Rondo and often them taking the shot is the team's best play.

Again... is it better to have a PG who averages 20+ points and 9 assists on extremely efficient shooting?  Or is it better to have a PG who averages 11 assists and only 13 points, because he's a weak scorer?

If Rondo was a better scorer... or if Rondo was asked to score more... he'd average less assists.  And if he averaged less assists, that would effectively kill the main argument for him being the "best passer in the game".

I'm sure others have brought this up.  Chris Paul is a very efficient scorer.  He also leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

CP3 assist-to-turnover = 4.26
Rondo assist-to-turnover = 2.84

Chris Paul per 36 min stats:  18.3 points, 10.5 assists, 2.6 steals 48%/33%/89%

Rondo per 36 min stats: 13.2 points, 10.6 assists, 1.8 steals  48%/24%/64%

is what it is.

[BballTim]

The truth is... probably not.

His assist/turnover ratio isn't the best in the league.  He gets a lot of assists, but that's partially because he's a somewhat subpar scorer for a player of his stature.  He scores less, because he takes less shots.  He gets more assists, because he takes less shots.  He takes less shots, because he's not a very good scorer.   There are several point guards in this league that could average as many assists as Rondo if they averaged less shots/points, but there is no point to that since they are better scorers than Rondo and often them taking the shot is the team's best play.

  If those point guards shot less and passed more they'd have a harder time getting assists because the defense would be playing them more for the pass and less for the shot. There is a point to Rondo passing compared to the other point guards shooting, the Celts score more efficiently off of Rondo's passes than those other point guards do when they shoot.

[D.o.s.]

The truth is... probably not.

His assist/turnover ratio isn't the best in the league.  He gets a lot of assists, but that's partially because he's a somewhat subpar scorer for a player of his stature.  He scores less, because he takes less shots.  He gets more assists, because he takes less shots.  He takes less shots, because he's not a very good scorer.   There are several point guards in this league that could average as many assists as Rondo if they averaged less shots/points, but there is no point to that since they are better scorers than Rondo and often them taking the shot is the team's best play.

  If those point guards shot less and passed more they'd have a harder time getting assists because the defense would be playing them more for the pass and less for the shot. There is a point to Rondo passing compared to the other point guards shooting, the Celts score more efficiently off of Rondo's passes than those other point guards do when they shoot.

Man, how wild would it be if the C's got the points every time Kyrie Irving scored a bucket, instead of the Cavs?