Rajon Rondo's March

[CoachBo]

As much as some who don't know what they're watching would love such a metric - as sabremetric fans tend to do - the eyes don't lie, effort-wise.

[D.o.s.]

As much as some who don't know what they're watching would love such a metric - as sabremetric fans tend to do - the eyes don't lie, effort-wise.

I don't think that Corey Brewer gives the most effort because he's the most spastic. But I should, right? because the eyes don't lie.

[CoachBo]

Sabremetrics are for the basketball illiterate.

[nickagneta]

Sabremetrics are for the basketball illiterate.

While I don't completely agree with this, I don't completely disagree with it also. I think there is a lot of fantasy basketball GM types and others not involved in the game that use sabremetrics to justify some opinion they have that just seems against what I have been watching(example: people trying to convince me some years ago that Bargnani was a good defender because of some massively advanced stat from a sabremetric site).

On the other hand though I believe some sabremetrics are extremely useful tools for coaches. No not PER or ORTG of Win Shares. I'm talking numbers like points in the paint, FG% against, 3PT% against, FG% of a player based on the position of the floor they shoot, etc. Maybe those are not sabremetrics but basic stats but my point is I believe stats can be an extremely useful tool for breaking down teams and creating strategies to defeat a team or for your team to reduce its ability to be beaten.

[D.o.s.]

Sabremetrics are for the basketball illiterate.

Did you use your abacus to post this?

Sabermetrics are for everyone. Like everything else -- it's the wizard, not the wand. Nick's provided a great example of a way to use data poorly, but that shouldn't reflect poorly on the data.

[RyNye]

Technically speaking, ALL sabermetrics are terrible for evaluating basketball. I mean, what does some player's batting average on balls in play have to do with shooting free throws?

This is my snarky way of saying that the work "sabermetric" refers VERY specifically to baseball. It's called "saber" from the acronym SABR- Society for American Baseball Research.

[D.o.s.]

Technically speaking, ALL sabermetrics are terrible for evaluating basketball. I mean, what does some player's batting average on balls in play have to do with shooting free throws?

This is my snarky way of saying that the work "sabermetric" refers VERY specifically to baseball. It's called "saber" from the acronym SABR- Society for American Baseball Research.

true, but they've become a catch-all term for beyond the regular boxscore stuff

[wahz]

Rondo's still recovering from the ACL injury so the low field goal percentage is to be expected. Glad assists are up though.

I think he has been missing at the rim on purpose every so often.

Laugh all you want. He wants a chance at a better pick also:>)

[pokeKingCurtis]

Here's the sequel thread to "Rajon Rondo's February":  http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=69934.msg1631531#msg1631531

Based on his February, it was proclaimed that Rondo's shooting was "much improved".

Here's his stats for March:

11.4 points, 11.1 assists, 5.6 rebounds, 1.3 steals - 36.8 minutes - 37%/24%/56% shooting

Pretty turrible shootin.  Thoughts?

To me, it seems he's as bad a shooter as ever, but now he's a terrible finisher as well.  This is partially because he's coming off an injury... partially, because he's no longer sharing the court with 3 hall of fame champs carrying the offensive load and drawing defensive attention.   Collectively for the season, his 3P and FT shooting is as bad as ever.  His overall FG% is a career low.

  We'll see how much of it's due to his coming back from injury next year. Hopefully your claim that he's missing shots because he's not playing with the big three will prove to be as accurate as all of your posts claiming that his being on the court with those guys was the main reason he got all those assists.

I knew his assists would be down and he'd have trouble scoring.  His assists are down and he's having trouble scoring.

Just came back to say his per 36 assist totals are near identical to last years' numbers.

Per 36 his assists are down by .3 so I guess you're still right

[BballTim]

When have I said Rondo sucks?  Stop making stuff up, Tim.  I said he's a terrible shooter.   He is.   It's not even worth debating.  Right now he's shooting worse than Ricky RUbio.  I said he's not as good as Chris Paul.  That's true too.  He doesn't suck, though.  He's a solid player.  I'm glad we have him.  We'll need a lot more if we are ever going to be relevant again, though.

Well to be completely fair LB you have stated

Rondo was not a superstar
Rondo was not a top ten PG
Rondo was a horrible shooter
Rondo could not lead a team post Big Three
Rondo had a large number of assists because he played with 3 Hall of Famers(insinuating his total would fall greatly if not playing with them.)
Rondo was injury prone
Rondo was past his prime
Rondo was a locker room problem

And you have had him traded from this team since 2009 for various reasons including all of the above.

I don't think its giant stretch to go from the sum of number of negative things you have espoused on Rondo to thinking you said Rondo sucks. I think that is pretty fair.

So far all of those bullet points are accurate.  We will see if he magically changes trajectory next season.

  It's probably true that you think all of those bullet points are accurate. At least in the moment that you're typing your response. You agree that Rondo's not a top 10 pg, in fact you've also called him a "top 20 pg". Or at times you've called him a top 5 pg or (in this thread) one of the best pgs in the league. Yet you summarize your position in a post where you claim I "make things up" by claiming that you've "said he's not as good as Chris Paul". Hilarious.

  Likewise Nick points out that you've stated that you claimed that "Rondo had a large number of assists because he played with 3 Hall of Famers(insinuating his total would fall greatly if not playing with them.)". You also agreed this was accurate, which is reasonable since you've said things like that many times in the past. Yet you certainly took offense when I mentioned "loads of posts attributing Rondo's assists to the great shooters he was around". You claimed I misinterpreted what you said, yet here you are agreeing with the claim you were trying to distance yourself from. Too funny.