Rajon Rondo is going into his second NBA season. As his minutes went up at the end of last season, so did his stats. But for some reason… people want to say this kid isn’t the answer at point guard.
Take, for example, Danny Ainge’s recent comments about or point guard situation:
“Here’s the thing with point guard,” Ainge said. “You know how much we love Rajon, and that’s really important, but Ray Allen wants to play minutes at point guard, and Tony Allen two years ago, when he had a chance to play point guard, played fantastic. Our offense was more efficient with Tony Allen playing point guard than with any other guy during that stretch.”
“And we think Gabe Pruitt can help us there. Even though we don’t want to count on Gabe as a rookie coming in and playing a major, major role, we feel very confident with him (in that) role in case of an injury. We think he can help us there as his game evolves.”
“And then Eddie House has played the point, and we think Eddie is actually a very good fit playing alongside Ray or Tony,” Ainge continued. “So we think we have five guys more than capable of playing the point.”
I read that as Danny addressing who is going to back up Rondo… but places like AOL’s FanHouse and Slam Magazine went the other way with it… questioning whether Rondo was suddenly in the doghouse. Today, TSN in Canada is beginning it’s “30 teams in 30 days” look at the NBA… and they say about the Celtics and Rajon Rondo:
Much of the trepidation surrounding the Celtics’ potential success begins right here, with Rondo as their starting point guard. Here we have a player who had a typical rookie season, with its usual peaks and valleys, who is now being asked to helm one of the most potent offenses in the NBA. It now falls on Rondo’s shoulders to distribute shots and run a team comprised of some of the best players of this generation. And he’s not a playmaker. Rondo is best compared to a guard like Brevin Knight or Earl Watson
Brevin Knight? Earl Watson? I don’t get it.
Yes, he got off to a rough start as a rookie trying to figure things out. But at the end of the season, when he started getting minutes, his numbers started to vastly improve:
February: 25.7 min, 36.9% fg, 6.5 ppg, 4.0 reb, 4.9 asst., 1.9 stl
March: 30.2 min, 37.5% fg, 6.9 ppg, 4.7 reb, 4.7 asst., 2.0 stl
April: 36.9 min, 55.3% fg, 13.0 ppg, 5.8 reb, 5.5 asst., 2.5 stl
Basically… once he got settled here, he started to play better. That 55.3% fg was the result of him deciding to take it to the hoop a lot more, and that opened things up for his teammates.
So this year, to me, a few things stand to reason: (1) He will improve simply because he has gained experience and that will help him in key situations. (2) He will improve his scoring because the players around him will draw so much attention, that he will have open lanes and the ability to reach the basket more often. And (3) He will improve his assists average because he is passing to vastly superior players. While I like a lot of the guys that have left this team, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that Ray Allen will be able to finish the drive-and-dish jumper more often than, say, Delonte West did. Kick outs to Paul Pierce will result in baskets, and assists. Passes to KG will result in finishes. We’ll see alley-oops that we didn’t see before.
I’m not going to sit here and say Rondo is suddenly going to be Jason Kidd. But I AM going to say that I’m perfectly comfortable with 30-35 minutes a game of Rajon Rondo as our point guard… and 15-18 minutes a game of the Allens, Eddie House and Gabe Pruitt. Yes, Rajon will still have to figure a lot of things out because he’s still only a second year player, but figuring that out will be easier with all of the stars around him… and he’s got enough natural skill to overcome some of the things he hasn’t learned yet.
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I like Rondo a lot, but you can’t judge him by his numbers last year because no matter how good his April numbers look, he was playing on the worst (tanking) team in the league. And Rondo is going to run into some problems this year because contrary to what he’s already said about how he’s going to “run the team,” the O is going to run through KG (as it should), PP and RA before Rondo. If Rondo wants to have a good year, he has to figure out what he has to do to “fill” a role on this team and not worry about leading a bunch of All Stars who don’t need to be led, especially not by a second year player. Rondo will get his 30 minutes per game, but I expect Ray Allen, Tony Allen or even Eddie House to be manning the PG position at the end of games this season.
listen guys…….. alot of times boston fans overrate their own. (as seen with al jefferson, who doesnt come anywhere close to kevin garnett. and delonte west, who comes nowhere close to ray allen)……… but also you know your players much better than these clowns writing this stuff about rondo………. as boston fans that have seen a lot more of rondo than fans around the country (boston was the worst team in the worst conference, and had ZERO national tv apperances……. no one saw rondo play, so what do they know??)…. so while we’re saying rondo is gonna be great and theyre saying he’s gonna be terrible, you have to take it into context that they really have no idea what theyre talking about, and we are overrating our guy like we always do, so take it into context and say what the truth is: he’s gonna be a decent starting pg….. which is all we need with the amazing amazing team he has around him highlighted by our 3 superstar veterans. he’s a very good defender, lightning quick, good passer, high bball iq, great rebounder, forces turnovers, but he also lacks experience and cant shoot and at times is a bit erratic……… he will be a quality starting pg but nothing special. very good defense, just like perk will be as our starting center….. and that is fine. that is perfect.
Nice post i could not agree with you more from those two postions PG AND C we have nice role players just like all great teams you have 3 stars and that’s more then enough in todays game. Just look at the Spurs Heat and the Bulls of old 3 great players. I will miss West tho he was fearless.
I say, get Tyronn Lue to backup Rondo and we’re all set at the PG position.