For the past couple of season, nobody has been singing Rajon Rondo’s praises more loudly than me. If you go back through my basketball columns, it seems as though every other article is “My God, look what Rondo did last night.” At this point in his career, I would without hesitation call Rondo the second best point guard in the NBA behind Derrick Rose. I know that comment is going to draw all sorts of criticism, but in my eyes a point guard’s job is to distribute the basketball and Rajon Rondo is averaging 2.5+ more assists per game than anyone else in the NBA. Tony Parker and the Chris Paul are that far behind.
Perhaps more indicative of why I hold Rondo’s game in high regard is his absurd ability to produce triple-doubles. A triple-double game is one where you’re doing it all. Last year Rondo was second in the league in triple-doubles behind only Lebron James. This year Rondo had 6 triple doubles… the next highest in the league was 1. Not to mention that Rondo also led the league in steals.
Whatever your measure, I could care less at this point that Rondo can’t shoot a jump shot (although he’s improved this season). The fact of the matter is he doesn’t need to – he gets to the hoop and scores, and is deadly in the fast break. But regardless of his game, Rondo needs to check himself. He’s turning into a grade-A punk now that his talent has become undeniable around the league. I went to a game earlier this season where Rondo had scored 31 points two minutes into the second half. After nearly every bucket, he glared over at his own and the opposing bench seemingly saying “Did ya see that?” Yes, we saw it Rajon. Now get the hell back on defense.
The whole referee bumping incident of this past week is really just the icing on the cake. Rondo may have cost his team that game, and very much hurt his team’s chances in game 2 of a playoff series. Luckily he had Paul Pierce to bail him out, but Rondo was still unapologetic saying, “I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. The world knows what I can do.” Yes, the world knows what he can do, but this incident has me looking at Rondo more closely with an eye towards the future.
What will happen to Rondo as he ages and loses that extra half step of quickness that he has right now? What happens when an all-time great is not there to bail him when his team goes down 0-2 in a playoff series because of him? It’s hard to imagine a point guard’s game that I could love more than Rondo’s, but I sure as hell don’t love the attitude. I’m all for great athletes being a bit cocky – to be the best, I think you need to be. But this can be done without hurting your team, and it’s up to the Big 3 to keep Rondo in check.
With the Derrick Rose out, the Celtics now have a very, very slim glimmer of hope in this year’s playoffs. But Rondo will need to be on the court for the Celtics to have any chance at all – and unlike Derrick Rose, it was Rondo himself and not an injury that took him out of the game.
Rondo has always been immature, he is 26 and really needs to grow up.
As far as number 2 I think you are way off. Look at his teammates in comparison with what Chris Paul, Derron Williams, and Steve Nash had and have to play with. Paul and Williams have never played with anyone any where close to the talent of Garnett/Pierce/Allen. If Rondo had to be the star he doesnt get to the hoop as easy, but teams have to stay with those three.
I would define a PG as not to distibute the ball but to create points and take care of the ball. If you make every assist worth 2 points, add them to ppg, and subract turnovers the top pg’s create this amount of points per game
Chris Paul: 35.9
Derron Williams: 34.4
Rondo: 31.7
Parker: 31.1
Westbrook: 31
Nash: 30.2
A this point I would put Williams and Paul ahead of Rondo. And would group Rondo with the Parker and Nash. Parker and Rondo play with hall of famers and Nash plays with dog shit. Westbrook is interesting because he is more of a shoot first pg.
Lastly the most important part of the pg’s game is crunch time. When you can stay 4 feet off a guy because he cant shoot and if he drives you can foul him because he can not shoot free throws either he loses alot of his value. All of those guys above can get to the hoop, they just dont have the luxery of passing to ray allen in the corner at the end of games.
I like your little calculation there. Even using your methods, Rondo comes in third. What you didn’t factor in is steals – if you add the points Rondo’s team scores from the extra possessions he gets them, he’s #1 or #2. Your point about crunch time is fair, but Rondo has scored some huge buckets for the Celtics in crunch time even when they know he’s not going to shoot. When he moves to the hoop, you don’t know if he’ll pass or shoot and he’s got the quickness to beat you with either one.
He is third on this list that doesnt include rose who you gave best pg to. That would make him 4th best
Well Paul led the league in steals so thats not gonna help Rondo. If you add steals here are your numbers
Paul:38.43
Williams:35.6
Rondo: 33.5
Westbrook: 32.7
Parker: 32.5
Nash: 30.8
Just for fun here are their shooting percentages fg/3p/ft
Paul:47/37/85
Williams: 40/33/84
Rondo: 44/23/59
Westbrook: 45/31/82
Parker: 48/35/79
Nash: 53/42/89
As you can see Rondo is by far the worst shooter of the group
Yea, this doesn’t surprise me at all. Nash is an amazing scorer.
Looks like Rondo led in steals per game, at least according to ESPN. http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics
post season stats is what you are looking at homeboy.
Good catch. Sorry, I’m ashamed of myself.
Yeah Rondo is a fun player to watch when he’s playing hard. He’s very fast, fearless, a great ballhandler, and superb passer. His shot has gotten better too. But to be truthful he doesn’t play much defense some games. And like you said, he’s an immature prima donna. And Pierce did bail him out big time in Game 2. If they lost that game and then lost the series Rondo would have never lived it down.
The league has lots of good point guards. Rose is the best of them and Paul is next. After that I’d put Westbrook and Williams. That makes Rondo 5th best. Nash and Parker on the downside. Irving, Wall, and Kyrie are on the upside. Linn? Not yet.
Chris Kelley – Framingham