How many players in the NBA average 10+ points, 8+ assists, 1.5+ steals and shoot 50%? Two. Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo.
How good will Rajon Rondo be when KG, Allen, and Pierce are either gone, or a shadow of themselves? Stockton had the benefit of beginning and ending his long career with one of, if not the, best power forwards of all time. Rondo is getting to play with three guys who are towards the end of their careers. When KG, Pierce, and Allen are gone, who takes their place? Can Rondo carry the Celts on his back? I'm not so sure.
If the big three were gone tomorrow, I don't think he could. But he's going to continue to develop as a point guard, and when the big three is gone in 3-4 years, Rondo can be the franchise horse.
Without the big 3, his numbers would probably be better. He doesn't shoot an awful lot right now, but he would if we didn't have them. He's a very underrated scorer, and I've yet to see one defender that he couldn't take to the basket and score on. He could easily score 20 a game with a few more FGA/game. And I think his assists numbers would also improve because right now a lot of the offense is run through Pierce and KG. The only stat that I think would suffer would be his FG%.
Also, I love how KG, Allen and Pierce are "sacrificing stats" by playing in such a stacked lineup, but somehow Rondo is supposedly benefiting from it. People don't make sense.
It makes perfect sense. Rondo is a point guard. Point guards benefit from having scoring options to pass to. You don't think he is benefiting from having Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on the wings, with KG in the post? KG, Allen, and Pierce are scorers. They need the ball in their hands to score. Any one of those three could average 20-25 ppg (and have at one time or another). For the big three to coexist, they needed to sacrifice touches. Rondo doesn't have to worry about that. He has to worry about playing defense and distributing the ball. I'm not taking anything away from Rondo, but I am curious to see how he performs once the big three are gone. I think he is one of the top five most promising point guards in the game though. I'd say the list goes: 1. Chris Paul 2. Deron Williams 3. Derrick Rose 4. Rajon Rondo 5. Devin Harris
I know what you mean, but just having Paul Pierce on his team alone limits the amount of assists he can get because the ball is in Pierce's hands as much as it is his. They also run a lot of inside out stuff through KG. All things considered, Rondo is probably facilitating the offense 50% of the time, which is a far lower percentage than it would be if he were playing without the big 3. I think if you look back at other point guards who have played with similarly stacked lineups, you will see that Rondo's numbers are much better than average. Also, like I said, Rondo is a really good scorer and playing with 3 all-stars definitely limits his ability to showcase that. Here's some more positive press about Rondo: NBA scouts, executives honor the season's best http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/04/10/weekly.countdown/index.html Seems like the guys that are paid to evaluate NBA players agree with me that he's not a product of his surroundings.
I just think he's still in the developmental stage, albeit late. At this very moment, I wouldn't be completely comfortable handing over a team of scrubs to him.
Yeah, I agree with that. He will get better. I think his jumpshot is the last step in the development process.
Hey Natebishop, it's Truehoop (Blazers Fan) that compared Rondo to Stockton, not us. If you have something to say to us, you can say it in here instead of trying to talk about us behind our backs.
Wow, gross overreaction. It's not like I started a thread over there calling you guys a bunch of dumbfucks or something. There was a thread about the Celtics and I made a comment. And if you look at what I said, it's pretty clear that I was only stating facts. Let's break this down: So you guys weren't posting things like: And then I said: So you are saying that ^^ this isn't a pretty accurate description of what I said, and then what you said? And your response and And finally, in that post I said So I guess you're right. I didn't make a post of me laughing. I apologize if you guys took it as me talking shit, but the subject is somewhat laughable and it's not like I was being nearly as disrespectful as you're making it out to be.
10/8/1.5/50% is pretty arbitrary. Wade is at 30.2/7.5/2.2/49.1%, while double/triple teamed most of the time - who would you rather have? How arbitrary? Let's look at guys who are at 13/6/.5/40%. Rondo doesn't make that cut, but these guys do: Paul, WIlliams, Nash, Calderon, Kidd, Davis, Wade, Duhon, Parker, Harris, Felton, Miller, Billups, Rose.
I can't speak for the others you quoted, but I in no way intended to compare Rondo to Stockton by mentioning that stat. I was just bringing up something that Mike Gorman had mentioned on the Celtics broadcast. And no, nowhere in this thread did I read something from you that implied you thought the subject was laughable. If anything, you have been more complementary than anything. That is my issue. I stand by what I have said, too. Obviously the team would not be very successful with Rondo as our top player, and I never said anything like that. I thought we were having a discussion about his individual numbers, which I still think would improve regardless of how laughable a fan that follows another team thinks that is. If you look at his stats, his numbers have actually gotten better in the absence of KG. As the roster is currently constructed, his role is limited. There are nights where he only takes 2 or 3 shots. Call me crazy, but I think it's inevitable that he could put up more impressive stats if he was a second or third option.
Yes, I would take Wade over Rondo. I'm not sure why you would assume otherwise. If you want me to put it in a less arbitrary way, here you go: Stats among point guards: FG% - Rondo is 1st Rebounds - 3rd Steals - 4th Assists - 6th A/TO Ratio - 6th Efficiency - 7th Double Doubles - 7th Scoring - 15th
