Woj on Rondo

[LarBrd33]

I hate to say this because I really liked him as a Celtic.  But I saw what Rondo did to the Celtics in his return.  He still has it.  Give him a reason to play - usually, an opportunity to stick it to somebody - and Rondo is great.  But right now, the greatest 'stick it' target he has is his own team, and he's doing a marvelous job. 

I believe he can still play.  He's just choosing not to right now.  I don't believe for a second that he's fallen this far.  Is he a good fit for the Mavs?  No.  Hell no.  But this isn't the case of a misfit (like Josh Smith in Detroit) or a player who just doesn't have it anymore (like, arguably, Dirk).  This is just somebody who hates his situation.

And I think a lot less of him for the way he's handling it.  This is really sad to see.

For Rondo to succeed, he just needs to have the ball in his hands at all time, he needs to be surrounded by decent mid-range shooters, he needs to completely control the offense, and he needs lots of minutes so he has time to get big stats.    If a team is prepared to give him that, he'll be right back to averaging 9 points and 10+ assists. 

If you try to put him in a system like Dallas (or the way the Celtics currently play) he'll fail miserably, because he's a garbage shooter and nobody respects him without the ball.  This has been obvious for several years.   Glad "Rondo Civil War" is officially over.   The naysayers won.

[SHAQATTACK]

The guy is gone. Why so hateful? Let him go. Stop bashing. Just forget him.

Oh wait! Who cares about an idol? We can have an athletic big, oh-my-god-he-can-dunk, as dumb as a doorknob, functional illiterate like WCS, McGee, Sanders or Upshaw. They are beloved around here, not Rajon. That explains a lot about some people.

There are actually a lot of great lessons to learn from The Fall of Rondo.

1.  Nothing in guaranteed in this life.  It is very likely that Rondo would have gotten max money from Boston or someone else if his knee injury and horrible attitude didn't get in the way.

2.  The grass is not always greener.  Instead of seeing it as a chance to be "The Man" in Boston, Rondo decided he was too good to go through a rebuilding process.  Now, he might end up having to sign with some team that's even worse off than the Celtics if he wants a huge contract.

3.  The importance of playing well with others.  You don't have to be Fred Friendly all the time, but being "difficult" with other people usually comes back to bite you in the butt.

Mike

TP!

[manl_lui]

The guy is gone. Why so hateful? Let him go. Stop bashing. Just forget him.

Oh wait! Who cares about an idol? We can have an athletic big, oh-my-god-he-can-dunk, as dumb as a doorknob, functional illiterate like WCS, McGee, Sanders or Upshaw. They are beloved around here, not Rajon. That explains a lot about some people.

There are actually a lot of great lessons to learn from The Fall of Rondo.

1.  Nothing in guaranteed in this life.  It is very likely that Rondo would have gotten max money from Boston or someone else if his knee injury and horrible attitude didn't get in the way.

2.  The grass is not always greener.  Instead of seeing it as a chance to be "The Man" in Boston, Rondo decided he was too good to go through a rebuilding process.  Now, he might end up having to sign with some team that's even worse off than the Celtics if he wants a huge contract.

3.  The importance of playing well with others.  You don't have to be Fred Friendly all the time, but being "difficult" with other people usually comes back to bite you in the butt.

Mike

TP!

that was very well put, TP as well

[Beat LA]

RIP "Playoff Rondo" Myth.  Lol

Again, if you give him 43 minutes a night and let him control the ball 95% of the time, he's still perfectly capable of putting up some "Playoff Rondo" inflated statistics. 

I think he'll play well wherever he lands, because wherever he lands will be an overpay situation... and a team isn't going to overpay Rondo without being prepared to give him the keys to the car.   He'll probably end up with the Lakers or Knicks... teams that have money to spend and fans to appease. 

I'm glad we got a late 1st for him.  It's just a shame we didn't cut ties with him earlier when he theoretically had more trade value.

He wouldn't be a fit in the triangle, though, which doesn't use a traditional point guard.  A better fit would be George Hill, or even Avery Bradley, lol.

[Beat LA]

I hate to say this because I really liked him as a Celtic.  But I saw what Rondo did to the Celtics in his return.  He still has it.  Give him a reason to play - usually, an opportunity to stick it to somebody - and Rondo is great.  But right now, the greatest 'stick it' target he has is his own team, and he's doing a marvelous job. 

I believe he can still play.  He's just choosing not to right now.  I don't believe for a second that he's fallen this far.  Is he a good fit for the Mavs?  No.  Hell no.  But this isn't the case of a misfit (like Josh Smith in Detroit) or a player who just doesn't have it anymore (like, arguably, Dirk).  This is just somebody who hates his situation.

And I think a lot less of him for the way he's handling it.  This is really sad to see.

For Rondo to succeed, he just needs to have the ball in his hands at all time, he needs to be surrounded by decent mid-range shooters, he needs to completely control the offense, and he needs lots of minutes so he has time to get big stats.    If a team is prepared to give him that, he'll be right back to averaging 9 points and 10+ assists. 

If you try to put him in a system like Dallas (or the way the Celtics currently play) he'll fail miserably, because he's a garbage shooter and nobody respects him without the ball.  This has been obvious for several years.   Glad "Rondo Civil War" is officially over.   The naysayers won.

He wasn't a 'garbage shooter' in game 1 when he made 3 out of 4 midrange jumpers.

[LarBrd33]

The guy is gone. Why so hateful? Let him go. Stop bashing. Just forget him.

Oh wait! Who cares about an idol? We can have an athletic big, oh-my-god-he-can-dunk, as dumb as a doorknob, functional illiterate like WCS, McGee, Sanders or Upshaw. They are beloved around here, not Rajon. That explains a lot about some people.

There are actually a lot of great lessons to learn from The Fall of Rondo.

1.  Nothing in guaranteed in this life.  It is very likely that Rondo would have gotten max money from Boston or someone else if his knee injury and horrible attitude didn't get in the way.

2.  The grass is not always greener.  Instead of seeing it as a chance to be "The Man" in Boston, Rondo decided he was too good to go through a rebuilding process.  Now, he might end up having to sign with some team that's even worse off than the Celtics if he wants a huge contract.

3.  The importance of playing well with others.  You don't have to be Fred Friendly all the time, but being "difficult" with other people usually comes back to bite you in the butt.

Mike

TP!

that was very well put, TP as well

Funny thing about this Rondo situation.  He had to be traded, because had he stayed we wouldn't have been able to retain him without giving him a max contract.  He would have used other teams as leverage to force us to overpay him.  Rondo isn't worth a max contract.  There was a really really good chance he was going to abandon us (apparently for the Lakers).   By trading him, you got a little bit of value for him.  But it also means, theoretically, if we wanted to offer him a contract this summer to return... we could.   Except the roles are very very different.  Instead of "Please Rondo, don't leave us for LA... we'll pay you whatever you want!!"  we can instead say, "Well Rondo... looks like you've proven yourself to be less than a max contract player.  Here's our reasonable offer.   Take it if you want... otherwise, best of luck to you... we good" 

[Beat LA]

Ouch

On the other side was a worthless waste of jersey filler. Rajon Rondo was useless. He was despicable. He was absolutely non-existent. With Chandler Parsons and Devon Harris out with injuries, seeing the pathetic excuse of an effort by Rondo in an every body on deck effort, was the biggest slap in the face to Dallas Mavericks fans, Mavericks ownership and those teammates who fought desperately. Missed shots? Sure. Beaten on the boards? Ok. You can give me a number of reasons the Mavericks lost this game, but a glaring void was on the front line with a wretched outing by Rondo. Absolutely mindless personal fouls. An 8-second violation. A complete cop-out in the face of adversity. He played 9 minutes and 55 seconds of insignificant basketball. I’m not even going to round up to 10 because if he wasn’t going to come out prepared to play, then why should anybody else give him the benefit of the doubt. I defended the idea, the paper philosophy that Rondo was going to be a difference maker. I held out hope that at some point he would man up and take his place as the brain piece of this Mavericks roster. But while he sat idle on the bench smirking and staring into nothingness, the head case of Josh Smith, the one nobody wanted was delivering lob passes, threes and monster jams to the Mavericks defenseless defense. Could Rondo stop the big men down low from owning the paint? No, but Tyson Chandler isn’t stretched all over the court trying to cover defensive deficiencies giving up a 30-15 turnaround that destroyed the Mavs 4th quarter. If Rondo is trying to say “okay tough guy, you bench me and I’ll be a nipple on a wart-hog” then he won that battle, and he proved to be more of a child than anybody in the NBA, NCAA, UIL and 1st-grade church league. I never thought I would see a player check out mentally like Lamar Odom again, but at a critical time in the Mavericks attempt to steal one from the Rockets on the road, we saw the most cowardly performance Mavericks fans have ever been privy to. And nobody deserves to play with, coach or root for a spineless athlete giving that little back

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/04/21/rondos-gutless-performance-robs-all-mavs/

Is this guy unaware of the history of the Mavericks, because Mark Aguirre was far worse.

[Eddie20]

I hate to say this because I really liked him as a Celtic.  But I saw what Rondo did to the Celtics in his return.  He still has it.  Give him a reason to play - usually, an opportunity to stick it to somebody - and Rondo is great.  But right now, the greatest 'stick it' target he has is his own team, and he's doing a marvelous job. 

I believe he can still play.  He's just choosing not to right now.  I don't believe for a second that he's fallen this far.  Is he a good fit for the Mavs?  No.  Hell no.  But this isn't the case of a misfit (like Josh Smith in Detroit) or a player who just doesn't have it anymore (like, arguably, Dirk).  This is just somebody who hates his situation.

And I think a lot less of him for the way he's handling it.  This is really sad to see.

Aren't the bolded parts synonymous?

[Beat LA]

Rondo is a spoiled, petulant jerk.  It's not a locker room story anymore.  It is plain for all to see.

I want to feel bad for where Rondo's career has taken him, but the way he's acting, he deserves it.


When Rondo joins the Lakers, that might be the most hateable backcourt ever.

I've never understood the 'spoiled' part of the, seemingly, collective take on Rondo.  Please explain. 

[Beat LA]

@Nick_Mathews
Rajon Rondo walks out of locker room, puts head phones on, refuses to talk to media.

So?  Robert Parish never talked to the press, either.

[kraidstar]

RIP "Playoff Rondo" Myth.  Lol

Again, if you give him 43 minutes a night and let him control the ball 95% of the time, he's still perfectly capable of putting up some "Playoff Rondo" inflated statistics. 

I think he'll play well wherever he lands, because wherever he lands will be an overpay situation... and a team isn't going to overpay Rondo without being prepared to give him the keys to the car.   He'll probably end up with the Lakers or Knicks... teams that have money to spend and fans to appease. 

I'm glad we got a late 1st for him.  It's just a shame we didn't cut ties with him earlier when he theoretically had more trade value.

thank god we didn't give him an extension.

as for the "playoff rondo" thing, i don't think it was entirely a myth. he just doesn't seem to have the same physical tools that he used to. and it would also help if he was on a team that could play some small semblance of defense.

IMO rondo's value was always in grinding out tough possessions in the half court.
that ability becomes pretty much useless when houston is racing up and down the court, hitting alley-oops and 3s like crazy.

regarding the return we got in the trade, i think we did well in retrospect. crowder has been a great glue guy (i'll bet dallas wishes they still had him). and i have the feeling dallas will miss the playoffs next year, or just barely get in and they'll convey their pick to us in the 10-16 range. chandler seems really unhappy being the only guy to play any defense, i think he's gone this offseason. there seems to generally be a lot of unpleasantness on that team, judging by body language.
i also suspect other free agents will recognize that dallas is a sinking ship and avoid them.

so that dallas pick might be nicer than we'd first thought. with some luck minny will take a step forward so we can get that pick as well, though i'd say it's unlikely. will also be interesting to see what kind of contract crowder commands. would be nice to get him back, but we also need to keep cap space free for future free agent stars.

[Atzar]

I hate to say this because I really liked him as a Celtic.  But I saw what Rondo did to the Celtics in his return.  He still has it.  Give him a reason to play - usually, an opportunity to stick it to somebody - and Rondo is great.  But right now, the greatest 'stick it' target he has is his own team, and he's doing a marvelous job. 

I believe he can still play.  He's just choosing not to right now.  I don't believe for a second that he's fallen this far.  Is he a good fit for the Mavs?  No.  Hell no.  But this isn't the case of a misfit (like Josh Smith in Detroit) or a player who just doesn't have it anymore (like, arguably, Dirk).  This is just somebody who hates his situation.

And I think a lot less of him for the way he's handling it.  This is really sad to see.

Aren't the bolded parts synonymous?

I see your point, but I'm attempting to distinguish between a player whose skills don't suit a team's system and a player who decided he isn't going to play because he has a problem with somebody.  Smith didn't fit in at Detroit.  Rondo just flat-out isn't trying in Dallas.

[RJ87]

Sadly, the idea of "Playoff Rondo" seems like eons ago now.

He summoned a lot of that energy in I think the second quarter of game 1.

The issue is he's no longer as lightning quick into the lane and also the team actively doesn't want him doing most of the stuff that "playoff Rondo" would thrive on.

They don't want him with the ball much, they don't want him crashing the offensive glass, and that Dallas team can't handle him roaming on defense creating havoc. Monta/Dirk have been awful this series and Rondo is going to absorb the blame and leave town.

Though his game 2 performance was absolutely galling, not sure what's going on with him at all other than he's checked out. I wonder if Carlise looked at the second quarter stint and basically made it clear don't do that again its out of my system. Because he was plenty engaged in game 1.

This. I've watched a lot of Mavs this season (pre and post trade), and I'm putting responsibility for Rondo's actions on him solely. However, I've been disappointed with how Carlisle has managed him on the court. The 2nd quarter in Game 1 showed Rondo can still get it going, even in the 3rd he was still attacking the paint - not making as many shots, but creating looks and rebounding opportunities for Tyson. What does Carlisle do? Pull him and run offense through Monta who was struggling. That's pretty much been the tale of the tape all season.

[Quetzalcoatl]

This is how I feel about that Dallas first rounder next year:

[mahcus smaht]

This is how I feel about that Dallas first rounder next year:

I bet they sign Aldridge