I am surprised so many do not remember the beginning of the 2012-13 season and because of a poor overall team record during that time that they are so quick to place the blame on Rondo, who with KG were about the only players on the Celtics at that time that were playing well.
- Bradley was out during almost the entire time that Rondo was playing and was healthy to start that season.
- Pierce came into camp out of shape and played some of his worst ever as a Celtic during that period. Offensively he had an ORtg of about 102(as compared to a career 107) and a TS% of 52%(as compared to a career 57%)
- Jeff Green was just coming back from his heart surgery, was out of NBA shape and averaged 9 PPG, 3 RPG, with a TS% of about 50% and an ORtg less than 100.
- Sullinger was a rookie and showed an occasional flash of what he could be but was overall not good.
- Jason Terry was just pathetic in both phases of the game and has never recovered.
- Courtney Lee though he shot slightly above average was unaggressive and didn't appear to fit well with the team or get the offensive or defensive rotations. His normally very good defense was extremely poor
- Bass was Bass with all the good and bad that entails though didn't seem to be shooting as much or as well as he did the two years before that.
Meanwhile, Rondo was averaging a career best 13.7 PPG, 11.1 APG, 1.8 SPG, shooting 51.2% on two point shots and appeared to have developed a real mid range game, something that was lacking from his arsenal up until that time. His defense though did appear to have taken a step back though, I will say that.
But to look at the C's 20-23 record and state it was Rondo's fault is just not paying attention to all the other variables that were occurring at the time or the fact that starting in February Sullinger, Green, Lee, and Pierce started playing much better overall basketball individually, probably because they were just rounding into playing shape or getting familiar with the team concepts and system.
And all this doesn't even address the fact that Doc Rivers probably had his worst coaching performance of his Celtic career that year.
Just not getting the whole "The past two years the Celtics have played better without Rondo than with him" phenomenon. Its an aberration that doesn't take into consideration the multitude on contextual variables that need to be addressed before jumping to the conclusions that some are based on that one statistic.