Rajon Rondo and the State of the Kings

[celts10]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

[PhoSita]

Appears Rondo is back to putting up close to 12-8-5 on a regular basis with the occasional big time triple double.  Still can't shoot from outside or the free throw line.  Is what he is.

Hopefully the Kings enjoy some more success with him playing that role.  So far things haven't worked out for them this season, but with Cousins out there's a built-in excuse.

It looks like Rondo is really helping Cauley-Stein and Koufos stand out, which is nice to see, but the team has also defended really poorly.

[Smartacus]

Appears Rondo is back to putting up close to 12-8-5 on a regular basis with the occasional big time triple double.  Still can't shoot from outside or the free throw line.  Is what he is.

Hopefully the Kings enjoy some more success with him playing that role.  So far things haven't worked out for them this season, but with Cousins out there's a built-in excuse.

It looks like Rondo is really helping Cauley-Stein and Koufos stand out, which is nice to see, but the team has also defended really poorly.

Rondo and Caulie Stein are looking like an excellent fit, one of his alley oops the other night looked like a finger role to everyone including WCS who took a second or two to realize it was meant for him. Their timing's not even close to there yet and WCS is already feasting around the rim, not hard to imagine the two becoming a fixture once they build that chemistry.

Also good to see Marco Belinelli finally settling in to a nice rotation spot, makes more sense now why they found Stauskas expendable this summer.

Rondo had the team running so well against GS it really makes you wonder if the Kings would consider cutting ties with Cousins and turning the keys over to Rondo. Personally think they're both too ball dominant to ever be that great of a fit together, and I could see George Karl siding with Rondo if he had the choice, especially considering the boatload of assets that trading Cousins would bring in.

Not to derail this thread into a trade for Cousins rally but if they picked up a top stretch 4 big man capable of shooting 3's (Kelly Olynyk?) to stick next to Caulie Stein it'd open up some serious spacing for Rondo to work with. Might even be able to make the trade work without including the Brooklyn Pick though that'd probably be a pipe dream.

[Rondo9]

Appears Rondo is back to putting up close to 12-8-5 on a regular basis with the occasional big time triple double.  Still can't shoot from outside or the free throw line.  Is what he is.

Hopefully the Kings enjoy some more success with him playing that role.  So far things haven't worked out for them this season, but with Cousins out there's a built-in excuse.

It looks like Rondo is really helping Cauley-Stein and Koufos stand out, which is nice to see, but the team has also defended really poorly.

Rondo and Caulie Stein are looking like an excellent fit, one of his alley oops the other night looked like a finger role to everyone including WCS who took a second or two to realize it was meant for him. Their timing's not even close to there yet and WCS is already feasting around the rim, not hard to imagine the two becoming a fixture once they build that chemistry.

Also good to see Marco Belinelli finally settling in to a nice rotation spot, makes more sense now why they found Stauskas expendable this summer.

Rondo had the team running so well against GS it really makes you wonder if the Kings would consider cutting ties with Cousins and turning the keys over to Rondo. Personally think they're both too ball dominant to ever be that great of a fit together, and I could see George Karl siding with Rondo if he had the choice, especially considering the boatload of assets that trading Cousins would bring in.

Not to derail this thread into a trade for Cousins rally but if they picked up a top stretch 4 big man capable of shooting 3's (Kelly Olynyk?) to stick next to Caulie Stein it'd open up some serious spacing for Rondo to work with. Might even be able to make the trade work without including the Brooklyn Pick though that'd probably be a pipe dream.

How about Rondo and Cousins stay together and develop chemistry?

[guava_wrench]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

Isn't the main difference between the two teams the fact that Dallas is all about winning and Sacto is used to being a bad team?

[guava_wrench]

14-15-12 with 4 steals against Curry and the Warriors. Rondo is such a freak.

Too bad his shooting percentage is as low as ever. He usually had a good shooting percentage during the big three years. Now he is just barely over 40 and his FT% doesn't even approach 50%.

[feckless]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

Isn't the main difference between the two teams the fact that Dallas is all about winning and Sacto is used to being a bad team?

Not sure if it has ever been brought up here but in defense of Rajon--when Carlisle left Detroit a few years back it was written how much all the people working there did not like him.  Secretarys, owners the everyday people within an organization.  I read it as Rick has a tough, rude at times, personality to get along with.  My guess was always that Rick and Rajon truly saw the game differently, did not like each other and what happened was not all Rondo's fault.  I have always wondered what type of personality would like working for Mark Cuban?

[GreenFaith1819]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

Isn't the main difference between the two teams the fact that Dallas is all about winning and Sacto is used to being a bad team?

DAL is a winning team based off of the fact that they happened to catch lightning in a bottle with Dirk's last good year in the league (2011), and Tyson could still defend and rebound a little back then, too.

Plus, it helped that LeBron, Wade and Bosh couldn't replicate what BOS did in 2007-08.

Things fell into place for Dirk, and I'm glad about that.

As for Rajon Rondo I'll ALWAYS remember the Good Years in BOS and how he competed and played with like-minded players and coaching staff - not the mess in DAL where Cuban wanted to be the Great Miracle Worker.

Cuban should stick to Reality TV - along with Trump.

[crimson_stallion]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

Isn't the main difference between the two teams the fact that Dallas is all about winning and Sacto is used to being a bad team?

DAL is a winning team based off of the fact that they happened to catch lightning in a bottle with Dirk's last good year in the league (2011), and Tyson could still defend and rebound a little back then, too.

Plus, it helped that LeBron, Wade and Bosh couldn't replicate what BOS did in 2007-08.

Things fell into place for Dirk, and I'm glad about that.

As for Rajon Rondo I'll ALWAYS remember the Good Years in BOS and how he competed and played with like-minded players and coaching staff - not the mess in DAL where Cuban wanted to be the Great Miracle Worker.

Cuban should stick to Reality TV - along with Trump.

I agree regading Rondo.

For all of his current issues he has (and he does have a lot of them) I'll always remember the days in Boston - where he genuinely looked like one of the 3 or 4 top point guards in the NBA, and at some points even looked like arguably a top 10 player.

Rondo was basically a three point jumper away from being the next Jason Kidd: a pass-first, triple-double collecting extraordinaire.   That he was able to do the things he did at a measly 6'1" was might impressive.

It's unfortunate that he came into the league at a time where pure pass-first point guards are going out of fashion, in favor of high octane offensive combo guards parading as point guards.  If Rondo came into the league 5 years sooner, he'd probably still be impressing people.

The biggest problem with Rondo however, will always be his attitude.  His basketball IQ is off the charts, and is almost unmatched in this league - unfortunately it seems like he's had a tendency to let that get to his head, leading to a high degree of arrogance which in turn has caused him to butt heads with a lot of coaches and other players.

I've seen people like Rondo before, at the various places I've worked.  The young hotshot kid who is highly ambitious and extremely talented...but who's arrogance creates so many enemies that it holds him back from ever becoming / achieving what he should. 

Nobody likes those kids.  The ones who come in after a week in the organisation, and start telling the more experienced veterans how they should be doing things, talking back to managers, going out and trying to put changes in place without the right approvals, etc.  The "top guns" types.  Talent can get you a long way, but even great talent struggles to overcome great arrogance.

[crimson_stallion]

mclemore shot 32% and 35.8% from Three in his two NBA seasons. Gay is a 34% career 3-Point shooter. They don´t have a stretch Big-man. Don´t want to hate on Rondo or the Kings team, but it´s not like it is a perfect fit for Rondo (Allen,Pierce,Garnett provided much more spacing and scoring ability in general)

Definitely hear you one the Boston big 3 being a better fit but that's more based how good the big 3 were as players not necessarily how you'd want to construct a roster around Rondo. Cousin/Gay/McLemore may never be as good as Pierce/Allen/Garnett but as players you could argue that they are a better fit next Rondo.

Your kind of picking and choosing your stats there to support your argument. With McLemore your looking at what he's done lately ignoring how well he shot at Kansas and how textbook and natural his form is. We were more going off how good of a shooter that he's projected to become, especially considering that he was expected to develop more slowly during the draft process.

But then when ya talk about Rudy Gay it's career stats that tell the story, stats that have been pretty seriously deflated by his time spent in Toronto as leagues least efficient, high usage offensive player.

Wasn't Jeff Green known as an talented play-maker in College too?  Wasn't Bennett an absolute beast in College?

When do we ever go off College stats when describing the talents of a guy who has already spent >2 years in the NBA?  Nobody does that, ever!

Hard to argue Sacramento has better shooters around Rondo then he had in Boston.  The combo of Ray/Pierce is a far superior shooting combination that McLemore/Gay - in fact even the combo of Bradley/Green was arguably more dangerous from three.

The main thing in Sacramento is that Rondo has an elite big in Cousins and a high volume scorer on the wing (in Gay).  As long as he has those two guys, I think he'll be a decent enough fit there.

My concern isn't about how he fits in terms of skills / play style though.  My concern is how he fits emotionally.  Rondo couldn't get a long with Ray Allen, who (on the surface) seemed to be one of the more professonal and less emotional players out there.  He reportedly had a bunch of arguments with Doc Rivers, who other players seem to always love playing for.  He even reportedly got into arguments from time to rime with Pierce and KG, though they still seemed to love him.

My concern is how his relationship with Karl and Cousins (two guys known for being...expressive) will go.

[saynomore]

He has had a couple games with 20+ points, too.  He may be a freak, but he was our freak and I miss him a lot...still follow him, and still a Rondo fan.

Really cute words towards Rondo from fellow Celtics fan are warming my heart, cause I feel the same way. Truly missing past times while he was in Boston :sigh:

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

You're right, he's been struggling. Mavs recently (like few days ago) posted some nasty tweet about him, when deleted. In my opinion it was clearly unprofessional and outdated.. it's just pretty much ridiculous what everyone is blaming only him

[GreenFaith1819]

It's been a tough past couple of seasons for Rondo, I'm glad he's finally found a spot where he fits in. I expect him to have a great 'revenge' game against Dallas when they meet.

Isn't the main difference between the two teams the fact that Dallas is all about winning and Sacto is used to being a bad team?

DAL is a winning team based off of the fact that they happened to catch lightning in a bottle with Dirk's last good year in the league (2011), and Tyson could still defend and rebound a little back then, too.

Plus, it helped that LeBron, Wade and Bosh couldn't replicate what BOS did in 2007-08.

Things fell into place for Dirk, and I'm glad about that.

As for Rajon Rondo I'll ALWAYS remember the Good Years in BOS and how he competed and played with like-minded players and coaching staff - not the mess in DAL where Cuban wanted to be the Great Miracle Worker.

Cuban should stick to Reality TV - along with Trump.

I agree regading Rondo.

For all of his current issues he has (and he does have a lot of them) I'll always remember the days in Boston - where he genuinely looked like one of the 3 or 4 top point guards in the NBA, and at some points even looked like arguably a top 10 player.

Rondo was basically a three point jumper away from being the next Jason Kidd: a pass-first, triple-double collecting extraordinaire.   That he was able to do the things he did at a measly 6'1" was might impressive.

It's unfortunate that he came into the league at a time where pure pass-first point guards are going out of fashion, in favor of high octane offensive combo guards parading as point guards.  If Rondo came into the league 5 years sooner, he'd probably still be impressing people.

The biggest problem with Rondo however, will always be his attitude.  His basketball IQ is off the charts, and is almost unmatched in this league - unfortunately it seems like he's had a tendency to let that get to his head, leading to a high degree of arrogance which in turn has caused him to butt heads with a lot of coaches and other players.

I've seen people like Rondo before, at the various places I've worked.  The young hotshot kid who is highly ambitious and extremely talented...but who's arrogance creates so many enemies that it holds him back from ever becoming / achieving what he should. 

Nobody likes those kids.  The ones who come in after a week in the organisation, and start telling the more experienced veterans how they should be doing things, talking back to managers, going out and trying to put changes in place without the right approvals, etc.  The "top guns" types.  Talent can get you a long way, but even great talent struggles to overcome great arrogance.

I just don't see him as being what you said - and I've never met him and probably never will.

His "warts" look a LOT bigger because DAL flamed out and HE (with his warts) was looked at to be the final piece. Even "I" thought it would work in DAL. Little did I know that Dirk was no where near the 2011 Dirk (nor a good defender EVER) nor was Tyson as effective as HE thought he was. It seemed fashionable to blame HIM and not the organization as well.

He evidently had these same supposed "warts" in BOS, too - right? I wonder why they did not seem so pronounced.....was it because KG (even in his twilight years) - defended(unlike Dirk)?

Was it because Paul Pierce - even NOW - is a better defender than Chandler Parsons? Heck, I'm talking about defense? Some of us here don't think he ever played DEFENSE in BOS.

I look at the totality of Rondo - just like I look at other players whom seemed gifted with more talent than he - but haven't achieved what Rondo has.

But these are just "MY" opinions and I won't deflect this Rondo-SAC thread any longer.

I believe SAC will be a better team this year and that it will work out for him, Boogie, Gay and Coach Karl.

[saynomore]

Hard to argue Sacramento has better shooters around Rondo then he had in Boston.  The combo of Ray/Pierce is a far superior shooting combination that McLemore/Gay - in fact even the combo of Bradley/Green was arguably more dangerous from three.

The main thing in Sacramento is that Rondo has an elite big in Cousins and a high volume scorer on the wing (in Gay).  As long as he has those two guys, I think he'll be a decent enough fit there.

Gay so far haven't played impressively yet and McLemore.. woah he's having the lower amount of points than Rondo (again, so far). Start of the season for Kings is disappointing and they lost Cousins right in the beginning so tough schedule certainly won't helping em. But I hope what you're right and Kings will find a solution, build a decent team w/Rondo/Gay/Cousins

As for Rondo and his fitting into the system/attitude, well, he's playing quite better than in Dallas. I still believe where was a problem with him and Rick (both stubborn), Karl loves to play with both point guards in the court, gives them freedom.

[hwangjini_1]

14-15-12 with 4 steals against Curry and the Warriors. Rondo is such a freak.

Too bad his shooting percentage is as low as ever. He usually had a good shooting percentage during the big three years. Now he is just barely over 40 and his FT% doesn't even approach 50% 40%.

rondo ft% is currently 35.7%.

[PhoSita]

This is what Rondo is now, post-injury:

12 pts, 8-9 ast, 4-5 reb, 1-2 stl, 40% / 30% / 40%

He's not hurting their pace, though.  Sac is top 5 in pace so far.


I'm glad to see him proving he can be a useful player in the NBA, still.  Also glad the Celts didn't give him a long term contract.