Rondo taking 7 3pointers

[Vermont Green]

Nobody even bothered to guard him, there was no pressure, it was like practice.

Nobody ever guards Rondo when he has the ball.

  It's hard to overstate how far removed from reality this comment is.

Per Goldsbury (and most anyone else)

It lingers today among both fans and opponents who insisted on going under screens, sagging off of him, and almost daring him to shoot the ball.

Teams for the last several years have sagged off Rondo and dared him to shoot.   How is that comment "removed from reality"?

And it is not just because they figure a Rondo jump shot is a good percentage for them.  Another aspect of Rondo's shot that is a weakness is that he has a very slow release.  This gives the defender an extra second or so close the gap and provide some contest.

I started this by saying if Rondo can continue to hit 4 of 7 on what were described as largely uncontested 3 Pt shots, it will transcend his game and he will become the player that you have believed him to be all along.

[D.o.s.]

You could argue, I guess, that daring Rondo to shoot isn't guarding him, but I'm not sure that's a definition many people would agree with.

[Snakehead]

You could argue, I guess, that daring Rondo to shoot isn't guarding him, but I'm not sure that's a definition many people would agree with.

Me among them.  There is more to defense than that and you still defend players who can't shoot further out than their shooting range for the most part.  Especially one as quick as Rondo.

It's like saying the Celtics didn't guard LeBron when he was on the Cavs during the Big Three era.  We were daring him to shoot.  We were also guarding him.

[Vermont Green]

You could argue, I guess, that daring Rondo to shoot isn't guarding him, but I'm not sure that's a definition many people would agree with.

Me among them.  There is more to defense than that and you still defend players who can't shoot further out than their shooting range for the most part.  Especially one as quick as Rondo.

It's like saying the Celtics didn't guard LeBron when he was on the Cavs during the Big Three era.  We were daring him to shoot.  We were also guarding him.

OK, we are down to arguing some pretty inconsequential semantics here.  The whole thing started when someone posted something along the lines of "yeah, Rondo was 4 for 7 but he wasn't being covered so they were essentially open shots".

I replied something along the line of, "Yeah, but teams never guard him so most of his 3 Pt shots are essentially open shots"

Then a debate ensued as to whether or sagging off a player and daring him to shoot constituted him being guarded or not.  I don't know the official definition of "guard" as relates to basketball but I guess leaving a player open enough so that he can take an uncontested shot if he wants to is still guarding him BUT THAT SO IS NOT THE POINT!

Rondo could take 7 or more uncontested 3 point shots every game if he wanted to based on the way that teams currently choose to defend him.  That is the point.  If he starts to hit them at a rate of 4 for 7, teams will not continue to dare him to take those shots.  It really doesn't matter if you call that guarding him or not.  To me, saying that a team didn't guard Rondo on 3 pt shots is a colloquial or folksy way of saying, "sagged off and dared him to shoot".

I guess in the future I will need to try and be more literal and less figurative.

[BballTim]

Nobody even bothered to guard him, there was no pressure, it was like practice.

Nobody ever guards Rondo when he has the ball.

  It's hard to overstate how far removed from reality this comment is.

Per Goldsbury (and most anyone else)

It lingers today among both fans and opponents who insisted on going under screens, sagging off of him, and almost daring him to shoot the ball.

Teams for the last several years have sagged off Rondo and dared him to shoot.   How is that comment "removed from reality"?

And it is not just because they figure a Rondo jump shot is a good percentage for them.  Another aspect of Rondo's shot that is a weakness is that he has a very slow release.  This gives the defender an extra second or so close the gap and provide some contest.

I started this by saying if Rondo can continue to hit 4 of 7 on what were described as largely uncontested 3 Pt shots, it will transcend his game and he will become the player that you have believed him to be all along.

  Teams don't always sag off of him, they don't always go under picks and they guard him whenever possible when he has the ball. Other than that it's reasonably accurate.

[hwangjini_1]

Nobody even bothered to guard him, there was no pressure, it was like practice.

Nobody ever guards Rondo when he has the ball.  They always go under the screen or otherwise dare him to shoot.

Isn't that guarding the ball?

Um... what?

tp. you are just so much faster than i am zolly. maybe i should spend more of my life here.