I already like Marcus Smart better than Rondo as our starting PG

[BballTim]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

[hwangjini_1]

What I get off the above quotes is what I remember seeing and that was that often Rondo was on a one man fast break because the rest of the team wasn't running with him. What I get is that the team was relying to much on Rondo to be great and wasn't playing up to the potential they should have been playing at all along. What I remember is that Rondo was playing great and carrying the team, along with KG for the beginning part of that season and the rest of the team was playing extremely poorly.

That's what I remember about the Celtics and Rondo before he blew out his knee. Heck I even remember the night he blew out his knee Rondo going back out there and playing with the torn ACL because he is such a warrior and was so pivotal to what they were doing earlier that season.

i honestly don't know. we may never settle this debate fully. what has always stuck out to me is that for the past two years that i checked, the celtics did win more of their games WITHOUT rondo than with him. this includes both pre and post injury. and for me, w/l is a pretty powerful indicator of how good your team is.

clearly the ball moves around more without rondo handling the ball, that makes sense since his primary value is to have the ball in his hands and not play off ball offense. off ball offense is not his strong suit.

but are the celtics going to be a better team this season with rondo? i dont know. the celtics under the big three era and the celtics this year are so different it is hard to compare rondo's role between those teams, or project off the past.

is rondo the best pg for a non-big-three celtics team going forward? that might be a better question to ask here.

[playdream]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

[Fafnir]

Funny thing is Smart's game isn't tailor made for the "motion" offense either.

Frankly I don't understand the fetishization of a system that we haven't seen succeed yet. I guess the Spurs spillover is great.

[BballTim]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

[Tr1boy]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

[nickagneta]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

No Rondo isn't at that level but if stars win in this league then your offensive system needs to be tailored to max out the abilities of the stars offensively to maximize the teams chances of winning. A motion offense will work if you have no stars or a whole bunch of stars but if you have a couple to three stars, a motion offense is usually doomed to succeed at the NBA level.

You have to get the ball in the hands of the players that will give you the best opportunity to score. If Danny were to hypothetically add Kevin Durant to Rondo and this team and subtracts Jeff Green, then you want the ball in the hands of Rondo and Durant. Rondo to create for Durant and Durant to score. That is how you would maximize the offense. You don't want players like Evan Turner or Marcus Thornton taking a bunch of shots in a motion offense when a star like Durant would be there or a play maker the caliber of Rondo is on the court.

For now, its probably best that Rondo fit into the system and pick up the pace as the best interest of the talent level on this team is to find the open man and get the open shot regardless of who is taking it because there are no great scorers/go-to scorers on this team. If that changes, however, I could see where Stevens would need to adjust his system or fail as a coach at this level.

[D.o.s.]

Tangentially related: Jeff Van Gundy spent one of the OKC series (I think) riffing about how his biggest failure as a coach was a refusal to tailor his coaching to Steve Francis's strengths.

[BballTim]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

  So you're under the impression that unless teams have players at the level of MJ or LeBron they just institute whatever generic system they prefer regardless of the personnel that they have? That's absurd. And, again, that's the kind of coaching we got from Pitino. If that's all we're getting from Stevens then we're doomed.

[Csfan1984]

Can there really be this many post on Smart vs Rondo who is better for C's? Smart looks good but it is only two games in preseason.  Rondo isn't playing right now. Not much we can go by at this point imo.

[BballTim]

Tangentially related: Jeff Van Gundy spent one of the OKC series (I think) riffing about how his biggest failure as a coach was a refusal to tailor his coaching to Steve Francis's strengths.

   That's pretty related. The job of the coach is to devise a system to maximize the performance of his players/team.

[Tr1boy]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

  So you're under the impression that unless teams have players at the level of MJ or LeBron they just institute whatever generic system they prefer regardless of the personnel that they have? That's absurd. And, again, that's the kind of coaching we got from Pitino. If that's all we're getting from Stevens then we're doomed.

Greg Popovich  is about the system 1st.   Not everyone is going to be a failure like pitino if they utilize this kind of system

When we won the championship, that season we played amazing team basketball also if you forgot.

[shrinkage36]

It seems to me that this offense is sort of fast paced, and so dominating the ball is probably not the best idea. But I do think there's a place for both RR and MS on this team. When you pair them both together, it's going to be somewhat dynamic. I still think we're a couple of players away from being an annual playoff team, where we're constantly competing for the playoffs.

[Donoghus]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

  So you're under the impression that unless teams have players at the level of MJ or LeBron they just institute whatever generic system they prefer regardless of the personnel that they have? That's absurd. And, again, that's the kind of coaching we got from Pitino. If that's all we're getting from Stevens then we're doomed.

Greg Popovich  is about the system 1st.   Not everyone is going to be a failure like pitino if they utilize this kind of system

When we won the championship, that season we played amazing team basketball also if you forgot.

Popovich has also had the horses.  Believe it or not, the Celtics are nowhere close to those San Antonio teams in talent.

You think the Spurs are that successful in that system if they didn't have Tim Duncan?  Talent came first and then the system worked to success. 

[BballTim]

The good news is that the Rondo question will be definitively answered, very soon. Reason: Coach Stevens' new system is so dramatically different from the way Rondo has played in the past. Therefore, when RR comes back, we can expect that it will be immediately obvious whether or not he is fitting into the new system. I think we'll know after one game. Maybe two or three, but I think one will suffice.

If Rondo does the old walk-pound-and-wait routine, then that will be that.

+1

  Neither of you may have noticed, but Rondo played half a season in Brad's system last year. And, fyi, much of the play in preseason doesn't continue into the regular season. Anyone remember Darko on the break from a few years back?

That's why i don't think Rondo will/can adjust to Brad's system and will soon to be traded
Yes the injury excuse will buy him some time but it's just a matter of time

  To a certain extent, Brad needs to be able to tailor his system to fit his personnel. He basically did that last year when Rondo was ready to play. He'll do the same thing if Danny adds any star players to the team. If not he'll be another Pitino for us.

Rondo is not at the same level of lebron, jordan, duncan and other greats.  Absolutely no way. They might have a great deal of freedom  to ultimately run/direct the team on both ends.  Take over in crucial situations to secure wins

Again rondo is not at the same level and what BS wants/the system in place for the team comes first

  So you're under the impression that unless teams have players at the level of MJ or LeBron they just institute whatever generic system they prefer regardless of the personnel that they have? That's absurd. And, again, that's the kind of coaching we got from Pitino. If that's all we're getting from Stevens then we're doomed.

Greg Popovich  is about the system 1st.   Not everyone is going to be a failure like pitino if they utilize this kind of system

  No, he's not. Their system when they won last year wasn't the same as the grind-it-out slow paced team that won the title in 2007, which in turn wasn't the same Duncan/Robinson centric system that he won previously. He changes what they do on offense based on the personnel on the team.